Hey Jealousy
by LeDiz
Summary: AU Atemu and Yuugi were supposed to be the best of friends, but growing up isn't easy, and one small mistake can ruin everything. Now it's three years later and Atemu is going to make things right.
1. Addiction

Hey Jealousy

**DISCLAIMER:** An oldie but a goodie – A Priest, a Rabbi and an Irishman all walked into a bar. The bartender looked up and asked, "what is this, a joke?"

Chapter One – **_Addiction_**

* * *

He peeked into the lounge room, dark eyes narrow and angry as he peered around the room.

The weird woman with the big eyes had told him to go into the lounge room and play. She dressed like his teacher, so he didn't really trust her, but there didn't seem to be any blackboards in here. There were a lot of toys and a big TV, as well as a huge, squishy couch. He eyed it carefully, then crept into the room.

Nothing moved. He looked around again, suspicious of empty rooms with so many toys. Rooms with all this kind of stuff always had lots of kids. He crept over to the toy box, and opened it slowly. No, nothing hiding in there but more toys. He picked one out—a cool dinosaur with lots of spikes—and turned around, frowning at the rest of the room.

His eyes narrowed again, flashing red as he noticed movement behind the couch. He gripped his dinosaur tightly and moved toward it, crouching down to a crawl as he got to the armrest. He hesitated, then pounced, holding his dinosaur at the ready to attack.

But there was no one there.

He blinked at the space, before something tapped his hair and he looked up. A pair of wide purple eyes twinkled at him over the arm of the couch, and a small stuffed dog came down to gently push its nose against his forehead. "Gotchya," said a soft voice.

He continued to stare up at the stuffed dog until it was moved away, revealing a boy with short dark hair and long blond bangs. The boy grinned. "He'lo."

He turned around, still on his knees. "You're s'posed to say 'good morning'."

"Morning," he parroted, then blinked once and recited, "My name is Yuugi and I am four years old. Nice to meet you." He made the stuffed dog bow. "And this is Green."

"But he's not green."

"I know. But I'm not a yuugi either," said Yuugi, and he found he couldn't argue with that.

"My name is Atemu," he said. "And I'm four years and three months old."

"And that's Rekusu," said Yuugi, pointing to the dinosaur. Atemu looked at it, then back up at Yuugi, who continued to gaze at him quietly. "You're not a very good hunter."

"Am so!" he said angrily, straightening his shoulders. "I'm a real good hunter. I knew you were behind here!"

"But I caught you," he pointed out. "Me and Green climbed over the back of the couch and caughted you."

He frowned, folding his arms, but Yuugi just smiled. "But it's not real fair. I mean, me and Green've known each other for ages, and you only just met Rex, so there's no teamwork. An' teamwork is the only way you can win at anything. Wanna play again? Just me and you?"

Atemu stared at him for a few seconds in disbelief. "You really wanna play with me?" he asked, but Yuugi just blinked at him again. "None of the kids at my old playgroup ever wanted to play with me."

"How come?"

He didn't answer, just lay a finger on his cheek, near his eye. Yuugi slowly climbed down to sit on the floor beside him, then leaned in to look at him closely. Atemu stared at how big Yuugi's own eyes were, while the other boy appraised the funny colouring of his new playmate. He'd thought they were brown at first, but now he could see they were actually a weird red colour.

Yuugi suddenly laughed, sitting back on his heels. "Pretty!"

Atemu stared. "Huh?"

"You have pretty eyes. Like a white bunny rabbit," he said, and pushed Green's nose up against Atemu's lips. "All pretty and stuffs."

Atemu faultered, unable to think of a reaction to such a bright smile, until Yuugi put Green down on the floor and jumped to his feet. "Okay. Can you count to ten?"

"I can count to _a hundred_," he boasted, folding his arms.

"Wow! Then you count to ten and I'll go hide! Then you come find me, okay?"

"Okay!" he said brightly, then covered his eyes. "One, two, three…"

* * *

"Eight, nine, ten. Okay, that's it." 

Yuugi looked up from his work, blinking in surprise. "You're done already?"

"Yep. Thirty-four funbags with ten snakes in each," announced Atemu, finishing the bow on the last bag and tossing it on the pile. "And we've still got three left. One for you, one for me and one for Lady and the Tramp."

Yuugi rolled his eyes at the reference, but didn't say anything, simply going back to his wrapping paper. Atemu's little sister was having her tenth birthday party, and she said it was probably the last year she would be able to get away with funbags and games, so she was making the most of it. Unfortunately, this meant the party would be a lot of work, and since he didn't have anything better to do, Atemu had been dragged into helping with the preparations, and he had then pulled his best friend along for the ride. While Atemu had claimed funbags, Yuugi had been handed an armful of crappy toys and wrapping paper, then told to make a pass-the-parcel. It was taking a lot longer than he'd thought it would.

Atemu sat back to watch him, smiling absently. "You know, you'd make a good elf."

"Huh?"

"Like for Christmas. You know, Santa's elves?"

Yuugi stuck his tongue out at him. "Your parents should be paying me for this. I mean, fourty layers?"

He shrugged. "What Dendera wants, Dendera usually gets," he said, and popped a snake into his mouth. "And if I have to suffer, then so do you, aibou."

"Would you quit calling me that?" he said, playfully kicking out at him. "I don't get what your deal is."

"I dunno. But _everyone _at school calls you Yuugi; I want to be able to call you something different," he said, and picked up the green snake to dangle over Yuugi's head. He had made sure two of the last snakes were green; Yuugi loved green snakes. His friend leaned his head back, mouth open, and Atemu lowered it past his lips. "I mean, you get to call me Atemu when no one else does, so I want a special name for you."

"Yeah, but aibou?" he asked around the snake. "I mean, where'd that even come from?"

"_Cowboy Bebop_."

"Why am I not surprised?" he muttered. "Try and think of something else, huh?"

"How about… pretty-boy?"

Yuugi tossed the closest plastic toy at his head. "I am not a pretty-boy, pretty-boy."

"No, but you are cute."

"Oh, bite me. But speaking of," he said suddenly, looking up. "That Sakita girl has a thing for you."

"Sakita? The one with the headband?" he asked, pointing at his head, and Yuugi nodded.

"She asked Anzu to ask me to ask you if you liked her," he explained. "So. Do you like her?"

He shrugged. "Not really."

Yuugi smiled, shaking his head as he finished taping another layer in place. "The girls are all going to go mad before the year's out," he said. "Come on, Atemu, you're gonna be fourteen next month. There's gotta be some girl you like."

"Nope," he said, leaning back on his hands. "Never really noticed them much."

"Weirdo."

"Oh yeah? And what about you, love-machine? What girl do you like?"

He blinked, then blushed, looking down at his parcel. "No one…"

Atemu's smile faded, staring at him. He hadn't even considered the possibility of Yuugi liking someone, before. "Who is it?"

His blush increased a little. "Anzu…"

"_Anzu_? You like Mazaki?" he cried, sitting up. "But she's so…! How could you like Mazaki?"

"She's really nice."

"She's so pushy! She's… she's so…!" He made a rapid hand movement, clearly stating something so terrible it was beyond words.

Yuugi smiled shamefully, fingering the paper he was about to cut. "I like her… I don't know why, I just do."

"Hmph," was all Atemu could say, sitting back on his hands again. He had suddenly decided he was in a lousy mood.

Yuugi shook his head with a smile. "Okay then. If you could have the perfect girl in the world, what would she be like? Personality-wise."

He looked at him sideways, then rolled his eyes, accepting the topic. "The exact opposite of Mazaki," he said firmly. "She'd be quiet, and shy, but I would be able to make her talk. She wouldn't be that funny, but she'd still have a sense of humour, and she'd be really fun to just sit and talk with. She'd be the type of person you can just sit down and watch TV with, or play a game. You wouldn't have to be all romantic with her. She'd be a great cook, and really polite, and really cute."

"I said personality-wise," Yuugi reminded him, not even looking as he began cutting his next square of paper.

"Cute can be a personality. You have a cute personality."

"I am not freaking cute!"

"You are!"

"Am not!"

"You're cute!"

"Am—ow!"

Atemu blinked, then swore as Yuugi quickly brought his hand out from under the paper, blood already seeping down to his palm. "Yuugi! Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I just nicked it on the scissors," he said irritably, and stuck the offending finger in his mouth to suck off the blood. "Just needs a band-aid. You got any on hand?"

"Gimme a sec. Don't move," he ordered, and Yuugi absently smiled at the familiar protectiveness as Atemu rushed out of the room. They had been friends since before Yuugi could remember, and Atemu had always gotten overly worked up about his little injuries. When Atemu got hurt, it was always 'nothing', but if Yuugi so much as scraped his knee it was a medical emergency. He could remember breaking his arm once when he was ten, and Atemu had apparently refused to sleep until he actually saw Yuugi and personally made sure he was okay.

It had been hilarious at the time, but these days Yuugi just found it kind of… he wouldn't say sweet (he got enough flak about being girly without using words like that…), but it was definitely enough to make him smile a little fondly.

Atemu returned with a bandage and disinfectant, which made Yuugi scrunch his nose in annoyance. "It doesn't need that."

"You're not getting infected on my watch," said Atemu, gripping Yuugi's wrist to pull his finger out. He examined it, scowling at the long split up Yuugi's finger. "Nicked, huh?"

He made a small noise in the back of his throat, waving his other hand dismissively. Atemu shook his head and quickly set about cleaning and bandaging the finger. He didn't have Yuugi's natural talent at first aid, but he wasn't that bad at it.

When he was done, Atemu looked up to meet Yuugi's gaze, but stopped at his resigned smile. He blinked, swallowing as he felt a faint stirring in his stomach that was starting to become familiar. It kind of felt the same as going on stage, and it had been happening for about a year now, at irregular intervals that he couldn't explain. He swayed forward a little, his fingers curling further around Yuugi's hand. "Na… Yuugi…?"

"Well, I guess it does feel a little better," he said, and Atemu flinched, the deadpan of Yuugi's tone jerking him out of his strange haze. "Course, I may still have to sue for the emotional damage of you _poisoning me with disinfectant_…"

He laughed, pushing down the hitch in his breathing, and sat back. "And what do you expect to get out of it?" he asked playfully. "Half the stuff I own is actually yours!"

"I want a hamburger. You want hamburgers?"

"Mm… I want onion rings…"

"Those things are disgusting."

"Whatever. We've still got stuff to do for Dendera's party. You want me to finish that?"

"Nah, it's okay. I just wasn't paying attention."

Atemu frowned, but didn't comment as Yuugi went back to wrapping the parcel. The weird feelings were starting to happen more and more often, lately, and it was really starting to worry him.

* * *

"I am never going to understand your obsession with manga, Atemu." 

"I don't have an obsession," he said, flipping through a few pages of his book. "It just so happens that a few of the things I like happen to be manga. You have an obsession with games. I just happen to like manga."

As usual, Yuugi chose to ignore him. He was lying back on Atemu's bed, reading the most well-read of his best friend's manga, trying to find a reason to like it. "I guess the art is okay. But what's with the characters? And the plots. I mean… some spirit trapped in a _game_?"

"You know, aibou, you're kind of annoying," said Atemu, standing up to shift onto the bed.

He blushed despite himself, trying to glare. "It must be from spending so much time around you. And would you stop with the aibou thing already?"

He smiled, lying down on his side beside him, propped up on his elbow. "What would you rather I called you?"

"I don't know," he said, blushing again.

Atemu smiled, his hand reaching up to brush down Yuugi's cheek, then down around the back of his jaw, where he flattened his fingers to cup the back of Yuugi's neck. He slowly leaned down, brushing his lips over Yuugi's. When he pulled back, Yuugi was still smiling at him, though this time with the gentle softness that he hadn't seen since he'd last been sick.

"Atemu, my finger still hurts," he said quietly, and Atemu frowned, leaning back.

Yuugi raised it up for him to see, and he took it gently, turning it the better to see. The cut was deeper and bleeding again.

"I'll make it better," he murmured, and raised the finger to his lips. Yuugi merely watched as Atemu softly kissed the tip of his finger, then moved downward, kissing along the cut. It healed as he went, until he reached Yuugi's palm. The cut kept going, sliding down his arm and up under his shirt. Atemu continued to follow it, kissing and gently touching, not even noticing as Yuugi's shirt disappeared from existance, and the cut began running up his shoulder to his neck.

One of his hands found Yuugi's hip, and he rolled over so he was lying on top of him, kissing a new path around Yuugi's neck and jaw, sucking on the points where they met.

"Mm… that feels so much better," breathed Yuugi, but Atemu didn't answer as thin arms snaked their way around his shoulders, pulling him closer.

He was suddenly at Yuugi's mouth, his tongue pushing over Yuugi's with only enough resistance to make it interesting. He had never kissed anyone before, but it was just like in the movies, and just the way people described. Yuugi was hot and wet and so perfect that he found himself rocking upward, pushing him further into the bed the deeper the kiss went.

Yuugi's hand buried into his hair, but both of his hands had moved to Yuugi's hips, gripping and pulling, but suddenly they weren't resting on the worn denim jeans Yuugi always wore outside school, or even the cheap cotton boxers Atemu made fun of him for owning. They were on pure, untouched skin. Soft and smooth and so totally his that he stretched his fingers out for more.

"Atemu…"

"Mm, Yuugi…"

"Yeah, come on, get up."

The heat suddenly disappeared, and he found he wasn't lying on top of anything anymore. He blinked, and found himself staring at a badly embroidered tiger, barely recognisable in the dim light. He blinked again, pushing himself up, and realised where he was.

He and Yuugi had fallen asleep after Dendera's party, Yuugi falling on the couch while Atemu had curled up on the pile of cushions he was supposed to be cleaning up. He slowly turned his head, paling when he realised Yuugi was kneeling beside him, smiling wearily.

"It's almost six in the morning, I'm gonna head on home. I figure you should probably go to bed before Dendera's friends wake up and maul you."

He found himself staring blankly as he ran back over his dream. "You… you're going home?"

"Mm. I was supposed to get back, like, seven hours ago. Come on, get up," he said, poking his shoulder gently.

He blinked yet again, and started to get up, until he noticed a strong pulse between his legs. He swallowed, shifting back down again. So that was why he was feeling so uncomfortable. "Uh… actually, Yuugi, I think I might stay here."

"You sure? It doesn't looked very comfortable…"

"Oh, actually, it really is…" he said quickly, and Yuugi frowned.

"Are you okay? You sound kind of weird…" He reached out, pressing his hand against Atemu's cheek. "You're really warm. Do you think you're getting sick?"

"No, no… just fine…"

"Well… okay… I can stay, just to make sure. You want me to help you get up to bed, or…?"

Atemu's eyes widened as he felt a formerly unknown part of his mind smirk. "No!" he shouted, and Yuugi flinched back, his hand snapping back to his chest. Atemu turned away, defensive. "I'm fine, Yuugi, I don't need your help."

He hesitated, then ducked his head, looking at him worriedly. "Are you sure? You don't seem –"

"I said I'm fine," he snapped, and Yuugi pulled back again, hurt.

"Well… okay…" He slowly got to his feet. "I'll just… head off then…"

"Yeah, okay," he said quickly, his tone harsher than he'd meant it to be. "Bye."

Yuugi frowned, but didn't say anything as he picked up his bag, and kept silent until he was at the door. "I'm leaving…"

Atemu didn't look around, just trying to fight down his blush and stop that goddamn embarrassing… _thing _between his legs. The door closed behind Yuugi, and Atemu buried his face in his hands.

* * *

It wasn't until a few days later that Yuugi made a point of seeing Atemu again. They were in different classes, and Atemu had clean up duty that week, but he hadn't been stopping by Yuugi's class during lunch and recess like he usually did, so he was starting to think he had done something wrong. 

He poked his head into the classroom, checking to make sure there was no one else there still. Atemu was scrubbing desks, his eyes blank from the monotonous work.

"Atemu?"

The dark hand jerked, splashing a puddle of soapy water onto the floor. Yuugi cringed. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."

Atemu raised his head, and Yuugi frowned at the painfully even look he was getting.

"You haven't been coming by for breaks, I thought I'd just come say hi," he explained, suddenly feeling nervous. "So, uh… hi."

"Hi," agreed Atemu, his voice strangely gruff. His hand was visably clenched around the rag, the soap suds squeezing out through his fingers to drip loudly against the floor.

Yuugi shifted uncomfortably, gripping his elbow. "Um… Atemu… I… is something wrong?"

"Like what?"

"Like… like you haven't been by to see me lately, or called or anything."

He didn't answer, glancing away for a bare instant before looking back at him. "So?"

"And whenever I call you, you're always too busy to talk or come over," he added. "And when I come by your class, you're always studying or something."

"It's almost exams."

"It's November."

He looked away again, scowling. "So? I've been busy, deal with it."

Yuugi flinched at the cold tone, hunching further in on himself. "Um… Atemu… did I do something wrong?" he asked nervously. "Only… ever since Sunday morning you've been kinda—"

"Dammit, Yuugi, I just haven't had the time, is that such a big deal?" he spat, and Yuugi jumped, his eyes widening at the anger in his voice. "I have a life outside you, you know! You make it sound like we're dating or something!"

"I – I didn't mean –"

"Because we're not! We're two guys that have nothing in common," he said loudly. "Have you ever thought that maybe I just want some time to myself? Maybe I don't want to spend every waking minute with you?"

"Atemu, I… What's going on here, I thought –"

"Well, you shouldn't think so much, then, should you?" he snapped. "Just leave me alone, okay?"

"Atemu…"

"I said get out!"

Yuugi stared at him, shocked. "What on Earth's gotten in to you?"

"You, Yuugi, that's what!" he shouted, and pointed at the door. "Get out!"

"Atemu?"

"GET OUT!"

He fell back a few steps, his hands rising on defensive impulse. They stared at each other for a few moments, before Yuugi smiled gently, his shoulders dropping. "Okay… but… when everything's okay again, then I'll be here. I just want to help you."

Atemu continued to stare at him for a long moment, his breathing beginning to quicken, brow furrowing angrily. "I don't want your help."

Yuugi just smiled and nodded. Sometimes Atemu got into lousy moods like this, and would be defensive and demand to be left alone until he worked it out himself. But he always came back in the end. "I'll be here," he promised, and slipped back out into the corridor.

Atemu glared at the closed door for a few moments, then yelled out, throwing his rag at the door. It hit hard, causing a sickening wet splat that left a trail of black water behind it, but he didn't even notice, punching the desk in front of him and sliding down to his knees.

It was getting worse.

* * *

Buckled black bloots clunked each time they hit the ground, dominating and threatening with each graceful step. Their studded straps jangled slightly with the movement, but were generally muffled by the simple blue uniform that covered them to the ankles. 

He was an impressive sight for someone that barely covered a hundred and seventy centimetres. His clear skin was perfectly bronzed despite the cool temperature, and his eyes were sharp, bloody red orbs. The usually unassuming high school uniform only made him seem more majestic, with his jacket unbuttoned and flaring out behind him.

He was cold, and seemed far older than the uniform would have his passerbys believe, but there was something in his exotic looks that made several people follow him with their eyes, wishing he would glance their way.

But he never did. He had only started walking to school this year, always taking the long route that led him through the shopping district. He paused on a street corner, nonchalently holding his bag over his shoulder to watch the shop on the other side of the street.

Once again, his detour had proved fruitless.

These days Yuugi _always _had friends to walk him to school.

Atemu sighed, watching as Yuugi stepped out of the shop, apologising at his friends' complaints at the time. Anzu automatically bent over a little, straightening Yuugi's uniform while he laughed bashfully. After she had finished, and the group had all said their good mornings, they started off down the street, and Atemu could continue on to school, his eyes trailing regretfully over the group. He could have been one of them.

It had been almost four years since his big screw up, and in that time, Atemu had become the epitome of 'cool', whatever that meant. According to what people told him, he was the most popular person in school, and he knew well from his overflowing locker that he had more than his fair share of admirers. He didn't go out of his way to have anyone like him—in fact his sister regularly informed him he did the opposite—but for some reason, that only made him seem better.

But he couldn't even catch the eye of the one person he wanted to.

Not understanding what he'd been feeling at fourteen had caused him to lash out, distancing himself from Yuugi completely. At first, Yuugi had continued to smile at him in the halls and say hello, but after almost a full semester of being ignored or even insulted, he stopped trying, and began avoiding Atemu whenever he could.

By summer break of third year, Atemu had realised what was 'wrong' with him, but by then it was too late. Yuugi wouldn't even meet his eyes when they passed in the corridor. It was probably just as well, he had reasoned at the time. He was pretty sure Yuugi was straight, and he wouldn't have wanted to screw up any chance of a friendship they had left with this bombshell.

He tried to start over, to be friends with him again, but everytime he even saw Yuugi, he started to panic and get tongue tied. So he did everything else he could think of. He watched out for him, and dealt with the jerks that tried to pick on him. He would leave little presents or typed notes in Yuugi's desk or locker on his birthday or holidays. It had been a problem when high school had come up, but Dendera must have been feeling generous or something because she had her little network of friends find out where Yuugi was going, and Atemu had followed, despite it being one of the cheaper and unacademic schools.

The Freshman ski trip had been when Atemu was going to finally talk to him again. But then something extremely weird had happened, and less than a month before, Yuugi developed this ragtag group of extremely clingy friends. Mazaki, two guys called Bakura, two former bullies and occasionally Seto Kaiba the billionaire. Worse still, they were good friends. And they had stuck by him all through high school, right up until this year, third year, and now…

He scowled jealously, shoving his hands further into his pockets. They were all in his class this year, and so every time he looked around, he got to see them all being good friends together. Jounouchi, one of the former-bullies, was particularly tactile when it came to Yuugi, and it irritated Atemu to no end. Even more annoying was watching his childhood friend interact with the two Bakuras, who were very open about their relationship. He hated the fact that Yuugi was so okay with it. It would be easier to deal with his own stupidity if Yuugi was a bigot or something.

Jounouchi suddenly tackled Yuugi, dragging him up into the air in a playful hug, shouting something about being the 'macho-man Katsuya Jounouchi-sama', and Atemu sighed, watching as Yuugi started laughing and fighting back as well he could.

He scowled, kicking the road gate in absent frustration. That could have been _him _wrestling Yuugi to the ground…

* * *

"The summer camp? Why?" 

"Why? What do you mean why?" asked Otogi, grinning. He and Atemu had been drafted into returning the sports equipment, and now they were returning to the classroom, still feeling hot and sticky and carrying their jackets over their shoulders. "Because it's the last school trip we're ever gonna have. We have to go and live it up!"

"But it's in the summer holidays. It's an extra couple of hundred thousand yen I'm gonna need one day and don't want to waste with the rest of the senior class," he said, rolling his eyes. "If it were a break from practice exams then yeah, I'd go for it, but as it is…"

"But it's on the beach! They're hiring out a whole beach; you've gotta come, it's gonna be awesome!"

"And I say to you again: no," he said, shaking his head in disbelief that Otogi didn't understand. "Sitting on a beach just so a few hundred fangirls can sit around and gawk at me in a swim suit does not interest me."

"But think of all the lovely views you'll get in return!" he argued, and Atemu rolled his eyes again, pausing outside the classroom.

"How many times have I got to tell you? Right now, I'm not looking to hook up with anything other than I always have been."

"I still don't see why you won't tell me who this mystery guy is."

"Because you would make a deal out of it and probably tell him!" he said, and Otogi shrugged his concession. Atemu turned to classroom door, but it slid open before he could touch it, and Jounouchi and his friend Honda sprinted around them deftly. Atemu blinked. "What the –?"

"Jounouchi, Honda, you are both so dead!" screeched a girl's voice, and suddenly Anzu Mazaki appeared in the doorway. She ducked around Otogi with the grace only a dancer can manage and took off after them, holding a metre ruler like a sword.

"Anzu-chan, wait, you don't want to do that!" cried Ryou Bakura, and Atemu had to jump out of the way to miss him. "Think of the school property cost!"

"It's worth it!" she yelled over her shoulder, and Ryou moaned before running after her.

The two boys waited for a moment, half expecting someone else to run out, before peering into the classroom. They blinked, before Tsuyoshi Makinda—better known simply as 'Bakura'—shot to his feet. "Dammit, Ryousei!"

"Bakura-kun, don't!" cried Yuugi, but his hand, outstretched in warning, was only grabbed in response, and Bakura physically dragged him along as he ran toward the door.

Atemu fell back, but Otogi only smiled, half crouching down. When Bakura flashed past, he darted out, snatched Yuugi around the chest and spun until he was pulled free. Yuugi, unprepared to be saved, fell forward, tripped over his own feet and crashed to the floor in front of Atemu. Bakura continued running regardless, and Otogi crouched down beside Yuugi.

"Hey… are you alright, Yuugi-kun?"

"Nnn… yeah, thanks, Otogi-kun," mumbled Yuugi, slowly pushing himself up onto his elbows. "But you probably shouldn't have done that. Bakura-kun's on probation with the school board, I should be there to calm him down…"

Atemu had frozen when Otogi had grabbed Yuugi, and now he just stared, wide-eyed, as Otogi helped Yuugi to his feet.

"I'm sure it'll be fine. They'll just blame Jounouchi-kun again. What happened?"

"Oh, it is was just that…" Yuugi trailed off, having finally caught sight of Atemu. He blushed, looking down at his feet. "Just the usual… I should go – go help Jounouch-kun and… stuff…"

"Need a hand?"

"No, it's fine. Thank you, Otogi-kun," he said quietly, keeping his head down as he walked past. Otogi absently waved as he turned back to Atemu, who stared at him.

"Since when do you know Yuugi?"

"Huh? Yuugi-kun?" he glanced back over his shoulder, shrugging. "He was in my class last year, and we started hanging out together since all my friends from first year were in your class."

"How come you never told me?"

He shrugged again, raising an eyebrow. "You aren't exactly the type to care," he said, leading the way inside.

"Well, yes, but no one talks to Yuugi Mutou," he said, still staring as they made their way back to Otogi's desk. "And he was talking to you like you were one of those weird friends of his. How'd you get to know him that well?"

"Oh, that. Well, you know…" He grimaced, turning around to sit on his desk. He waited for Atemu to stop in front of him before continuing, "My father kinda kidnapped him last year, and –"

"_Kidnapped_?"

"His grandfather sent my father broke back in the seventies," he said, carefully avoiding Atemu's gaze. "And last year, one thing led to another, and he… you know… But Yuugi-kun eventually got out, and with no hard feelings, so it all worked out okay."

Atemu stared at him, and Otogi smiled. "He's a really nice guy. Bit of a pushover, and his friends are weird, but hey, who am I to talk?" he joked, then grinned, straightening up a little. "Hey, you're into Duel Monsters, right? Yuugi-kun's family owns a game shop, I should introduce you guys! Yuugi's grandfather always gives his friends wholesale prices!"

He stiffened, barely hiding the panic that came up from that suggestion. Yuugi still never met his eyes, and he knew from passing the game shop every now and again that Sugoroku definitely did not like him as much as he once had. "Oh, no, you don't need to do that," he said quickly. "Really."

"No way! You guys'd get along great! You've got that whole hidden nice guy thing going on, and Yuugi-kun's actually got quite a personality under the 'I'm invisible' thing," he said brightly, as if he had suddenly had the best idea in the world. "And common interests – look at the hair!"

"Really, Otogi, you _don't _need to do that," he said firmly.

"Here's something weird for you. You know that necklace you bought last month? Yuugi-kun's got one just like it. You guys've got the same taste and everything!"

"Drop it, would you?" he said darkly.

"And hey, talk about coincidence. Yuugi-kun's had problems with almost all the guys you've…" He trailed off, eyes widening. Atemu's shoulders immediately squared, his fists shoving into his pockets as he waited for Otogi to finish his thought. "All the guys you've beaten up on have been the ones to give Yuugi-kun a hard time…"

"That's some weird coincidence," he said gruffly, and inwardly winced at his own practically see-through attempt to derail him. "You think they're taking it out on him?"

"Maybe… except you usually start hating them _after _they do stuff to Yuugi-kun…"

He didn't say anything, keeping his stance in place. Otogi grinned evilly. "Ohh… Yamino-kun…"

"What?"

"Do I not need to introduce you to Yuugi-kun because you don't want me to… or because you already know him?" he asked, his grin widening at Atemu's slightly narrowed glare.

"Of course I know him. He's in our class, isn't he?"

He smirked. "Oh, I don't believe this…"

Atemu lifted his chin a little, raising an eyebrow impatiently. "What?"

"The person you never tell me about… the one you've known and wanted ever since I met you… the one you're always day dreaming about…" He chuckled. "…is Yuugi-kun?"

He swallowed, lifting his chin a little higher. "No."

"NO WAY!" he shouted, jumping off his desk to point at him. "I don't believe it! It can't be!"

"It isn't!" he snapped, his suddenly widened eyes darting around in embarrassment at the curious stares around them. "Otogi, shut up!"

"_You _gave him the silver necklace with the eagle," he hissed quietly, coming close again. "That's why I never see you wear it, because it's around Yuugi-kun's neck!"

"Shut up!" he snarled through clenched teeth.

"You beat up on those guys to protect Yuugi-kun; you're why they don't bother him twice!" he said excitedly. "You go left instead of right when you walk home from school because you're actually going to Yuugi-kun's house!"

"Otogi, if you don't shut up right now, I'm going to hit you so hard your grandkids'll have mental problems," he growled, and Otogi finally stopped talking, smirking instead. Atemu glared at the surrounding students, but luckily Otogi had been whispering, so none of them had actually heard. They were just curious over his initial shout. They looked away at Atemu's glare, and he scowled, turning back to Otogi.

"You're half right," he admitted quietly. "But if you breathe a word, I swear to the gods of every religion out there that you will not live to breathe another."

"Oh, oh yeah," he said, playfully crossing his heart. "Won't tell a soul that the big bad Yamino-kun is in love with cute little Yuugi-chan…"

He grabbed the front of Otogi's shirt, yanking him close, and Otogi flinched, his jaw shutting with an audible click.

"Okay, okay, I'll shut up. Just… what do you mean 'half right'?"

He glared at him for another few seconds before dropping him back down on the desk. "Yuugi and I used to be friends in lower school… and middle school. But I screwed it up in second year and we haven't talked since."

Otogi frowned, pushing himself upright on the desk. "How do you mean?"

He grimaced, looking away. Having a few of the same tendencies himself, Otogi has figured out Atemu's orientation only a few days after meeting him for the first time. But that didn't mean Atemu was particularly comfortable with telling him, or anyone, about his screw up. "Yuugi was the first guy I… He was the first _anything _I ever really noticed that way," he said quietly. "I didn't get what was going on, and…"

"Ohh… First realisation is always bad…" Otogi winced. "And you were friends too…"

"Not just friends. We had spent pretty much every minute of the day together since we were four."

"Ergh…"

He nodded, leaning back on the chair behind him, arms folded defensively. "I figured the only way to make it all stop was to stop hanging out with Yuugi."

"Not good…" he observed, then blinked. "But then what's with the necklace and following him home?"

He shrugged, his ears heating up a little. "It was for his birthday. I just left it in his locker."

"How precious," teased Otogi, and Atemu glared at him.

"Shut up. I couldn't exactly give it to him in person," he said, hunching over a little. "And I just walk by the shop because… because I keep telling myself I'm gonna talk to him. Set things straight, you know?"

He shrugged, smiling. "That's… just too, too cute, Yamino-kun."

"I'm gonna hurt you."

"Sorry, sorry!" he laughed, holding his hands up in surrender. "So how come you haven't talked to him? I bet he's going nuts over who sent him that necklace, it's pretty good quality. You should just say you did it – start up a conversation, at least."

"Don't be funny."

"What are you talking about? Yuugi-kun likes me and I helped my dad kidnap him!" he said, then held up a finger, leaning forward with an evil smirk. "Besides, you never know. Yuugi-kun's not the most macho guy on campus, and it is kinda fashionable, these days…"

He gave him a look, annoyed, but when Otogi just returned it with one of his own, Atemu sighed. "Trust me, alright? He's straight. He's had a thing for Mazaki since middle school."

"So? He can play my game."

"I don't want him to play your game!" he cried, then lowered his voice when he realised he had attracted attention again. "Don't you get it? I want him to play _my _game. And _only _my game! I want him to _be _my game!"

"Cute pun."

"Thanks, but my sister made it up about two years ago," he said, and sighed, collapsing down into the chair he'd been leaning against. "I don't want him to be experimenting, I just want him to be… I dunno… mine."

"Egh, fair enough. But you never know until you try."

"I'd rather not fail miserably," he said wearily, folding his arms over the back of the chair. "And besides, how am I supposed to try? He's always with those friends of his, several of which crack their knuckles at the sound of my name, or at the game shop, and I know for a fact his family hates me."

"Why?"

"From age four to fourteen, he and I spent almost all our time together, until I suddenly woke up one morning and decided that I never wanted to have a civil conversation with him again."

Otogi grimaced, then blinked, his eyebrows rising in memory. "His grandfather's going out of town next week," he said thoughtfully. "Yuugi-kun said he'll have to mind the shop after school every day. You could go by then; pretend to need some new Duel Monsters cards."

He stared at him, unimpressed. "You can't be serious."

* * *

"He _can't _be serious," he muttered, staring up at the brightly painted building. He looked up and down the street again, searching for a way out, before he caught sight of Otogi, standing on the street corner and waving him onward. With his escape route cut off, Atemu groaned and turned back to the game shop. 

He looked down at his watch, but his quickly thought of argument that Yuugi's mother might be still tending the shop was shot to pieces. It was almost four – Yuugi would have to have taken over by now.

"This is the dumbest thing I have ever done," he said, then took a deep breath and started forward. He made it to the other side of the street before he stopped again, a vision of Yuugi glaring at him suddenly swimming into his field of vision.

"Oh god…" he said, turning around again, only to find Otogi still grinning at him from the other side of the street. He stared at him, and Otogi cupped his hands around his mouth.

"Heart of a Pharaoh, lover-boy!"

That settled it. He was not staying out here to be embarrassed like that. He immediately spun around and dashed into the game shop, slamming the door as soon as he'd gotten inside.

A sudden stillness settled over the room behind him, the kind that only came after you suddenly stopped in the middle of a conversation. He clenched his eyes shut, cursing the fact he hadn't thought far enough ahead to know those clingy friends would keep him company, before he straightened and slowly turned around.

Yuugi was sitting on his usual shop stool, his mouth partly open, and Jounouchi was standing on the opposite side of the side counter, holding a Duel Monsters card high above his head like only tournament-players could. They were both staring at him blankly.

He jerked his thumb up, over his shoulder. "Weird – gotta – yeah…"

Yuugi blinked at him several times, before he finally recovered his shop manner. "Welcome to the shop!" he recited, then quickly turned back to his duel, eyes wide and cheeks flushing pink.

Jounouchi continued to stare at Atemu for a moment, before laying down his card. "—the magic card Scapegoat, and then sacrifice one for my Panther Warrior to attack Blockman."

Atemu swallowed, his gaze shifting around the store warily. No signs of family, and Jounouchi seemed to be the only friend around… this could work. He rubbed his palms down on his thighs, looking around. The game store looked exactly the way it always had, though it seemed different now that he had grown thirty odd centimetres. He shuffled over to one of the counters, gazing down at the little figurines. They hadn't stocked those before.

"Dammit, Yuugi, at least look like you're paying attention when you do that to a guy!" cried Jounouchi, and Atemu discreetly glanced over.

"Sorry," said Yuugi, quietly. "Silent Swordsman Level Four direct attack."

"My life points… Yuugi! You're so cruel!"

Atemu smiled to himself, taking a gaming magazine off the rack above his display cabinet. They hadn't stocked these before, either. He flicked through, then tucked it under his arm, moving over to a box of Duel Monster packs.

"Alright! I challenge you to a rematch!"

"Jounouch-kun, I don't really think fifth time is the charm… Why don't we play something else?"

"No way! If I can beat you, I'll be able to beat Kaiba! And I'm _going _to beat Kaiba!"

But by that point, Atemu had walked up to the counter, and Yuugi was no longer paying attention to Jounouchi. He was looking at his hands as he waited for Atemu to pile everything on the counter.

"Oh yeah, you play Duel Monsters, don't you Yamino?" said Jounouchi, and both Yuugi and Atemu stared at him. Yuugi opened his eyes as wide as he could, his right hand making a cutting movement down by his leg, but Jounouchi either didn't see it or didn't care. "We played before right?"

He hesitated, then straightened up to face him properly. "Yeah. Back in Duelist Kingdom," he said, smirking. Yuugi had always been impressed by his titles – even when they were just winner of the city-wide chess tournament. "I'm pretty good."

But Yuugi didn't seem all that impressed yet, so when Jounouchi challenged him to a duel, Atemu quickly accepted. Maybe if Yuugi saw him duel, he would realise that he wasn't just boasting. He pulled out his deck, shuffling quickly before swapping with Jounouchi.

"Gotta warn you though, Yamino. Yuugi's grandfather taught me how to duel, and I'm almost as good as Yuugi," said Jounouchi, grinning as he shuffled the cards. "Yuugi can beat Seto Kaiba easy."

He just smirked, looking at Yuugi sideways. His former friend was sitting a little hunched on his stool, avoiding his eyes as usual. "How about this then, Jounouchi?" he asked, handing over the cards. "Since we're both so sure we're gonna win, why don't we put a little wager on this? Loser has to buy a round of hamburgers."

Jounouchi grinned. "You sure? Yuugi's in on this and he eats a tonne of those things."

"You're the one buying."

"Sh'yeah right. You're on!"

Twenty minutes, two customers and four gained observers later, Jounouchi gaped at his cards, then up at Atemu. "How…?"

"Jounouch-kun, Yamino-kun wasn't just in Duelist Kingdom," said Yuugi quietly. "He won it. He defeated Pegasus."

Atemu looked around in surprise, while Jounouchi gaped. "He _what_?"

"I've told you that everytime you talked about dueling him," he said, before the crowd of observers suddenly rushed back around the counter, all holding starter and booster packs for Duel Monsters. While he dealt with them, Atemu smiled around at Jounouchi. "It was a good duel. Those gambling cards almost had me."

He smirked, flipping the coin he'd used. "Yeah. It all started when Yuugi gave me the Time Magician. Goddess of Luck and I've got a pretty good relationship."

"Heh. She barely flirts with me," he said, and Jounouchi nodded.

"Hey, man, look, sorry I gave you such a hard time in freshman year. I always thought you were a bit of a jerk, but you're pretty cool," he said, extending his hand for a quick shake. "Rematch some other time?"

"Any time. But I'm holding you to that hamburger," he said, before reaching into his bag to get his wallet. He waited for the minor crowd to leave before picking out some notes to pay for his all but forgotten booster packs and magazine. "One thousand, four hundred and seventy-five, right?"

Yuugi nodded, his eyes focussed somewhere near the door to his house, and Atemu slid two notes across the counter. Yuugi quickly worked the register for his change and receipt, but when he went to slide them back, Atemu caught his hand and he flinched, his eyes automatically flashing up to meet his gaze.

"Thank you," he said, reaching out with his other hand to cover Yuugi's completely. Jounouchi and Yuugi both stared at him, though for different reasons, but Atemu slowly slid his hands back, as if just cupping his change so it wouldn't fall. Yuugi yanked his hand back against his chest, still staring at him, and Atemu smiled, picking up his purchases. "I like your necklace," he said, and turned around to head out the door.

"Hey, what about the hamburgers?" called Jounouchi.

"Some other time!" he said, much quicker than intended, as he rushed outside.

Jounouchi raised an eyebrow. "Damn, I thought that guy was a bastard, but he's just plain _weird_," he said, turning back toward Yuugi. "What was that with the… Yuugi? You okay?"

He slowly pulled his hand back down to his thigh, turning back to his friend. His real friend, who had never turned his back on him, despite everything that had happened to them. "Yeah… Yeah, I'm fine."

* * *

Before they 'broke up', as it were, somehow a great deal of Yuugi and Atemu's posessions had migrated to the other person's house. Over the break between middle and high school, a box had mysteriously appeared on Atemu's bed, and though his parents clearly knew nothing about it, Dendera had made a point of _saying _she was oblivious. 

The box had been full of all the clothes, games, manga and videos he had left at Yuugi's house.

He had tried to pack up all Yuugi's things in the same way, but every time he tried, he would get lost in a memory of one item or another, and spend the rest of the afternoon moping about how stupid he was. Once, when he had managed to get himself a relatively steady 'boyfriend' (though he hated to use the word, it sounded so ridiculous), he had actually finished packing the whole box up, and had even walked it over to the game shop, only to catch sight of Yuugi sitting on the footpath with Ryou Bakura. His resolve had crumbled and before he knew it, he was back at home, putting all the bits and pieces back around the house.

It was stupid, he knew, and he was being clingy, and dreaming impossible dreams, and he was acting like they had been some kind of married couple, but for some reason he just had to have hope.

The biggest thing of Yuugi's was a big, blue, stuffed rabbit. Their first festival where they had just gone on their own, they had spent twenty minutes just trying to get the stupid animal from a rigged game where you had to get the ball through the circle. Eventually, they had cheated, by Yuugi climbing up on Atemu's back and hurling the ball so fast that it actually cracked a few millimetres off the cardboard circle. The owner had agreed that cheating evened out cheating and gave them the rabbit. They tried to give it to Dendera, but she hated the colour blue that month, so Yuugi had been forced into owning it. Only he had never remembered to take it home.

So now Atemu sat back on his bed, fiddling with the rabbit's limbs as he considered his situation.

Now that Otogi knew, there was no way for him to just go on as he had been. Every time he went into school, Otogi was there, asking how it was going, offering to get him and Yuugi together, telling him what Yuugi had been up to lately…

"I don't suppose the idea of just going up and talking to him ever occurred to you?" he was always asking. "I know you say he hates you, and yeah, Jounouchi, Honda, Bakura and Anzu might all beat up on you for coming near them, but then you could play the battered sympathy card!"

Realistically, though, Atemu knew that was impossible.

He supposed, in some twisted universe, he could just explain the situation to Yuugi and hope he would understand – which he would, because Yuugi knew him better than anyone and would know how typical of him this whole thing was. But the problem was getting him to sit down and listen to him.

The rabbit's ears were slowly being twisted into an impossible knot, but Atemu's eyes were on the ceiling in deep thought.

Yuugi's birthday was coming up soon. He would be eighteen, and since they were leaving school, he might never see Yuugi again. That warranted a really good present, which Atemu could buy with the money he had won in different duelling competitions. But his parents had some lock on his bank account to keep him from spending too much, so buying the present would mean he wouldn't be able to go on the summer camp… which was not necessarily a bad thing, because Otogi kept hinting that Yuugi was going and it would be a perfect excuse to put the phrase 'sex on the beach' into practice.

He paused, his eyes glazing over a little as that phrase conjured up a few old dreams that he thought were long buried.

The rabbit was tossed aside as Atemu groaned, gripping his hair to keep himself from reliving why he had run in the first place.

"I will not go through this again…"

* * *

**_Part of a fic for you, a yummy review for me?_**


	2. Cravings

Hey Jealousy

**DISCLAIMER**: An old rope and a young rope walk into a bar, but the bartender looks up and says, "Sorry, mate, we don't sell drinks to ropes," and the two ropes leave. The old rope is so mad that he ties himself into a knot and storms back into the bar. The bartender looks up and says, "aren't you a rope?" To which the old rope replies, "Nope. I'm a frayed knot." _Bad-dum ching!_

Chapter Two – **_Cravings_**

* * *

Once again, Anzu had been elected festival officer. 

For a change, however, their class was not doing something original. They had decided on a biscuit store, with homemade baking and some canned drinks that had cost a lot more than they hoped.

But as always, Atemu had been volunteered to man the storefront for four of the twelve-hour festival.

Everyone who knew the two of them knew Anzu had always had issues with Atemu. At first people thought she was just jealous of his close relationship with Yuugi, but after he had run off she had begun to hate him even more. She liked to make his life as miserable as she could without letting anyone know she was doing it, which is why whenever there was a festival, she stuck him with the worst job.

But he knew that, which was why he never even pretended to help set up the booth.

"He is so lazy!" cried Anzu, as she slammed the 'register'—a red ice cream bucket—onto their stall. "It's bad enough he skipped out on the building stages, now he has to show up late, too?"

"Aw, give the guy a break Anzu," said Jounouchi. "You stuck him with the busy shift, he's probably just feeling bitter."

"No, you don't know him like I do," she said, setting a hand on her hip. "He's always been like this, ever since lower school. He's a total flake."

Jounouchi shrugged and went back to hauling the ice-and-drink-filled esky with Honda. Setting up the pyramid of empty cans that showed off their drink choices, Yuugi remained silent, smiling at Ryou's knowing glance. On the other side of the stall, Otogi was part of a small group who were all standing around the cake display, moaning about wanting some of the delicious looking baking. Unfortunately for them, Bakura was standing on the other side of the table, brandishing a metal ruler and daring them all to try and take something.

"Hey, who made this one?" asked one of the girls, pointing to a sponge cake with cream and strawberries.

"Ryou," said Bakura, swinging his ruler around so she yanked her hand away from it.

"And this one?"

"Ryou," he repeated, whacking the wandering hand of their class' star kendo-ka.

"And this one?"

"Oh, that's mine!" said someone else. "Doesn't it look terrible? Not like this one –"

"Ryou's," interjected Bakura.

"Man, who knew a guy could be such a great cook?" mused one of the boys. "Hey, Bakura, you sure Ryou isn't really –?"

He cut them off with a nasty grin. "I've checked."

The guys groaned a little, but the girls all squealed. They had always found Bakura and Ryou cute for some reason. Otogi, on the other hand, clicked his fingers. "Hey, Bakura-kun. You're on duty with Yamino-kun, right?"

"Yep," he said, though he was still leering at the kendo-ka, whose hand was lurking near another cake.

"And Ryou-kun's with Yuugi-kun in the evening, right?"

"Yep," he said again, tsking when the would-be thief decided to keep his hand and wander away.

"Don't you want to spend time with Ryou-kun, at this festival?"

"Nope," he said, and put his ruler through his belt as the crowd began to disperse. "What do you think I am, some kind of girl? I spend enough time with that Ryousei without working with him."

Otogi raised an eyebrow, and Bakura made a face in reply. "Why?"

"Well… I was just thinking… Yamino-kun doesn't really like Yuugi-kun," he said, lowering his voice conspiratorially. "It'd be kinda funny if he had to spend four whole hours with him, wouldn't it?"

"Not really."

"Look, I'm offering you a way out. You don't want to spend four hours with Yamino-kun, do you?" he asked, and Bakura narrowed his eyes in very quiet agreement. Otogi smirked, nodding. "Exactly. Just swap with Yuugi-kun. I bet he wouldn't care."

Bakura gazed at him in appraisal for a long moment, then set a hand on his hip. "I see your point. What I don't see is why you're suggesting it."

"Because it'll piss off Yamino-kun," he said bluntly.

"But it'll put the midget in a bad situation too," he added, and Otogi frowned, trying to think up an answer, only to have a new, much gentler voice cut him off.

"What will?"

They both looked around at Ryou, and Bakura raked a hand back through his hair, closing his eyes imperiously. "Dice-boy wants me to switch with the midget to piss off the spider."

Ryou blinked at him, translating that into names and reason before asking, "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why do you want to annoy Yamino-kun?" he clarified, tilting his head at Otogi curiously. "I thought you two were good friends."

"Exactly why I want to do this," he said brightly, and Bakura shrugged, accepting the point, while Ryou just continued to frown.

"That doesn't really make sense."

"Oh Ryou-kun, come on," he said, putting both hands on his waist, hip jutting off to the side. "Don't you want to spend time with Bakura-kun? Yuugi won't mind!"

"I wouldn't be spending time with him – I have lighting duty in the theatre for most of my shift," he said, but still tilted his head again in thought. "Though you do have a point. You're supposed to be on stage only fifteen minutes after your shift ends. It would be easier for you to just work with me."

Bakura continued to gaze at him blandly as he casually drew his ruler to smack the hand of a would-be cake thief, clearly considering his options. "But that means we would still have the first two hours together. And if those girls found out I switched, they would make it another chapter of that stupid book of theirs."

Otogi raised his eyebrows but decided not to ask, and Ryou sighed. "Maybe. But this whole festival is already in there, most likely, so we might as well make it interesting."

"Tch. Fine. You go tell the midget I'm switching with him," he said dismissively, and Ryou rolled his eyes.

"Yes, master. Thanks, Otogi-kun."

"Not at all, Ryou-kun…"

* * *

Two until six was probably the worst shift of the festival. It was that period of time that was best to walk around and buy stuff, because the atmosphere was strong, most of the shows were not on yet, and the bands playing were the best. If you were on shift, however, you were stuck in a hot stall, watching other people enjoy themselves, having to put up with those smart arses who thought they could haggle, and watching out for the suddenly increased crowd's sticky fingers. It was hell. 

Which was why Atemu was not at all surprised to find himself slotted right in there with his most hated of all nemeses: Bakura. Bakura just failed to care about discomfort. He was smart, and nasty enough that no one would ever try and cheat him. He was also a jerk, as far as Atemu was concerned, and he was just glad Bakura hated him enough to refuse to talk to him.

He sauntered in at five to two, appraising the stall. There were only a few customers at the moment, and three of his classmates were gathered at the back of the stall, switching shifts. Atemu frowned, noticing Yuugi standing beside Nezumi and Imori. He had overheard Anzu placing Yuugi and Ryou in the morning shift.

"Ah, Yamino-kun!" called Imori, and the other two turned to look at him. "Just on time."

"Where's Bakura?" he asked warily, taking off his blazer. "Isn't he working with me this shift?"

"No… something about his having to be on stage at six," replied Nezumi, rubbing his twitching nose. "Yuugi-kun swapped with him."

Atemu's eyes widened, snapping to look at Yuugi. The smaller boy was still standing at the back of the stall, looking steadily at the ground. Atemu had a sudden flash of insight that he needed to kill Otogi. "Oh. Okay."

Nezumi and Imori both shrugged, waving vaguely as they left. Atemu tossed his blazer and bag in a corner and slumped down in one of the chairs behind the 'register'. Yuugi hesitated a second, then took the other, keeping his eyes on the customers.

In the back of his mind, a voice that sounded strangely like Dendera was screaming at him that this was his chance to start over. He had four whole hours with Yuugi – _alone _with Yuugi! He would have no choice but to listen!

But of course, his more sensible Otogi voice was pointing out that he did have another choice. He could completely ignore him and then punch him for not shutting up. Because Yuugi had always been a rather good puncher when they were friends. Not particularly strong, but he always knew just where to place his knuckles. And as cool as that had been when they were just playing around as friends, he had a feeling it would hurt a lot more when Yuugi was serious.

But he was a lot stronger too, the Dendera voice said. He could fight Bakura and walk away without so much as a limp! He could take a few punches while explaining himself!

But his ego probably could not, Otogi pointed out. Or his mind in general. His mind would probably realise how much Yuugi hated him and be completely unable to deal.

But he could make Yuugi not hate him! Dendera insisted. Four hours alone with Yuugi! Screw the stall – close up shop and drag Yuugi into the school, then throw him down on a teacher's stage and start making out with him! He knew he was a great kisser. He knew his kisses had the power to change people's minds about him completely!

He looked at Yuugi out of the corner of his eye, and then sighed, sinking further down in his seat.

* * *

"Why'd you come into the store the other day?" 

Atemu flinched, the quiet voice so sudden in the lull of shoppers that he almost wondered if he had really heard it. He put his water bottle back on the table and looked around at Yuugi to make sure. Unbelievable as it was, Yuugi was looking at him from under his hair, though his eyes kept darting around nervously.

"I needed new cards," he said, just as quietly.

"Yamino-kun, your last tournament prize included the entire Dark Element series. Aside from them, you use common cards in all your strategy. Why would you need new cards?"

Atemu smirked, turning his head a little further toward him. "You know my deck."

"I watch TV," he corrected quietly. "You're on the gaming channel a lot."

"Oh yeah…" Regardless, Yuugi knew his deck! That meant he did _not_ change the channel whenever Atemu was seen on screen! Therefore, Yuugi could not despise him with _every _fibre of his being! "But it would take a lot to know my strategy like that. I'm surprised."

"Your plans are pretty easy to read once you've seen you play once," he corrected again. "Why were you in the store?"

Then again, maybe not. "I… I was passing and wanted to see if it had changed."

"You live in the other direction."

"I was visiting somewhere else."

"You're –!"Yuugi began, but cut himself off at the last second. He turned his head back to face the front of the stall, letting out a long breath.

They were silent for a few minutes, but after a young boy had jumped up to their table and bought a stack of cupcakes, Atemu decided it was time to try again.

"How's Grandfather Sugoroku?"

Yuugi glanced at him, the meek and nervous boy again, before suddenly finding his fingers interesting. "He's okay."

"And Aunt Omocha?"

Yuugi's eyes narrowed slightly. Atemu knew he was testing the line by calling Yuugi's mother by name, but apparently Yuugi was prepared to let it slide. "Fine."

"And you?"

He opened his mouth to say something, but again caught himself, forcing a smile on his lips. "I'm good, thanks. And you?"

He caught the warning tone, but just smiled back. "Not so good."

"That's a shame," he said, and turned back to the front.

"You see, I did something, a long time ago," he said quickly, sitting forward. It was an opening, at least. "And what I did was really terrible, but I want to take it back. The problem is, the person I did it to, they don't want to forgive me."

Yuugi's knuckles were turning white on the tabletop. "That's too bad."

"But the thing is, I know I can change, I know I can make it better."

He was quiet a moment, then put his hands flat on the table and turned toward him. "Yamino-kun, why are you telling me this? It's really none of my business."

He bit his lip, then pushed forward again. "I can explain. I just want – I want another… I –"

Yuugi suddenly jerked away from him, instead smiling at a new customer. "How may I help you?" he chirruped, and the girl smiled distractedly as she picked up a piece of cake.

"Yuugi –" began Atemu, but Yuugi outright ignored him, intent on helping the customer. Atemu grimaced, giving up to study his fists again.

* * *

The theatre was full of noise, but the lighting box was soundproofed, the microphones and speakers switched off, so everything was silent but for the constant pacing of Yuugi's shoes against the cement floor and his panicked ranting. 

"I mean, I just don't know what to do any more! I mean, I hate him, right? He ruined my life, my self-esteem, my relationship with Anzu, everything! I mean, I should hate him, shouldn't I?" His eyes flashed over to Ryou, who just pursed his lips without answering, so he continued to pace. "I should hate him. I do hate him. I've hated him for the last two and a half years. I would be an idiot to even talk to him now. I shouldn't have spoken to him before. I should have just ignored him the entire time, right? Right?"

Ryou leaned back in his chair with his arms folded, but remained silent.

"And besides, he hates me, too, anyway. So this is probably all just some big trick to fool me into trusting him again so he can shove it back in my face and humiliate me," continued Yuugi. "I mean, that's probably what it all was in the beginning, anyway. He probably started hating me years before the whole thing and it was all just a big set up to screw me up for life. That's all this is. He's ruined all the other kids' lives, now he's coming after me again. One last big shot before school ends. Right?"

His friend sucked his teeth, looking down at his shoes for a moment before raising his gaze with a slight wince.

"So the best thing I can do—for me, I mean… for him it would be to fall for it and trust him and be all ecstatic he wants to talk to me again, but I don't want to do what's best for him because I hate him—the best thing I can do is just ignore him. I can just smile and make polite conversation whenever he tries to make me like him again, then go back to my friends—my real friends who have never ever let me down despite all the stuff we've been through—and live happily ever after. That's what's best, right?"

Ryou sighed under his breath, unfolding one arm to scratch the back of his neck.

"So why do I want to do the exact opposite?" cried Yuugi, clenching his fists and glaring up at the ceiling. "Why do I want to go find him right now and say hi, how are you, you wanna come over and watch the Ring trilogy at my place tonight?"

"Most probably because you're you, Yuugi-kun," Ryou said gently. "You like to believe in people. And Yamino-kun is no different to Kaiba-kun… only Yamino-kun never tried to kill you."

Yuugi groaned, falling into a chair beside Ryou. "Would've been better if he had. At least I would know what was in his head. We were so fine, before, I still don't get what changed."

"Maybe he was just confused. And you have to remember, middle school has always been the most stupid thing in the history of education. All those hormones and emotions running around…" He shook his head, rolling his eyes. "You have no idea how many friends I lost in middle school, all because I didn't care about looking up the girls' skirts when we played basketball. I blamed them for making me feel different, they blamed me for being weird… Maybe Yamino-kun was just blaming you for whatever hormones and emotions were doing to him."

"Then he should have come back to me when he figured it out," he said wearily. "I mean… you figured yourself out, why didn't he?"

"Actually, I didn't figure myself out until I talked to you about my beloved other half," he said dryly, and Yuugi smiled at the memory. They had wandered around the game shop talking about Ryou's feelings for hours, until Ryou had realised how much he liked Bakura and why. Then they had spent the better part of two weeks together, trying to deal and work it all out.

"But it's still been three years," insisted Yuugi. "Why now? Even if you're right and he took longer than you to work himself out, shouldn't he have at least tried before now? At least tried to talk to me?"

Ryou shrugged. "I could be completely wrong, of course… you could be right about him trying to set you up for a fall. Come to think of it, knowing Yamino-kun's reputation for making people dislike him once they spend an extended period of time with him…"

"Great." Yuugi sighed, one hand rising to hold his head while the other fiddled with the chain around his neck. It was one of the many little gifts he had found in his desk or locker over the years – small and silver, it was a thin chain that extended out from the wings of an expensive, stylised eagle. He had no idea who it was from—the 'Happy Birthday' note had been typed—but it reminded him that he was never completely alone. Whoever his gift-giver was, they cared about him. "You know what? I think I'm just going to try and ignore him. I mean, just in case it's a trap. And even if it isn't, I am supposed to hate him. I'm justified in hating him, right?"

"Yup," agreed Ryou, despite his worried frown. "Just be careful, okay?"

He nodded, but his grimace slowly began to win out, and he let his head fall back with a sigh. He was being ridiculous, but that had always been something of a given when it came to Atemu Yamino.

* * *

"Congratulations, Yamino-kun!" 

Atemu frowned, then looked up from his handheld playstation to find Otogi standing over him, one hand on his thrusting hip and a broad grin on his face. Atemu sighed, lowering his eyes back to his game. After they had been relieved from the store and Yuugi had run in the vague direction of the gym, Atemu had fished PSP from his bag and retreated to their classroom to wait out the end of the festival. They weren't allowed to leave until ten, and even though he was going to skip out at that point, Anzu had put him on the cleaning committee and so he had to at least look like he intended to hang around that long.

Completely unfazed by the inattention, Otogi slid downward to perch beside Atemu's legs on the desk, leaning over them with one arm. "Yuugi-kun looked scandalised when I saw him! Did you close up shop and have your wicked way with him?" he asked playfully. "Is big bad Yamino-kun going to play the proper seme-boyfriend in our blossoming romance and pretend nothing happened while reliving every moment of a make out session to rival the ages?"

"You've been talking to Bakura's fanclub too much," Atemu said wearily, keeping his eyes on his game.

"Unfortunately, no. Hot and easy as they are, I found out that they're making a manga about him and Ryou-kun," he said, grimacing painfully. "It's more than a little creepy, and that's a bit of a turn off."

Atemu snorted, and Otogi leaned over a little more, trying to catch his eye. "So…? What happened?"

"I sat in a stifling hot biscuit stall for four hours selling cakes and cola."

"And…?" he prompted, leaning forward until he was practically draped over Atemu's knees. "You talked to him, didn't you? In four hours, you had to have made some form of conversation!"

He shrugged, refusing to look up from his game. "I tried to. He doesn't want to talk to me, and I'm not in a position to make him."

"What?" cried Otogi, gaping at him. "You gave up?"

"You can't give something up when you've already lost it," he said quietly, and Otogi gasped and grabbed Atemu's knee to lean right into his personal space, staring.

"But you're miserable without him! In the two and a half years I've known you, you've always been a stubborn, moody son of a bitch, and now I know it's all because of Yuugi-kun!" he cried, but Atemu was still focussed on his game, so Otogi tore it out of his grasp. "You can't just give up on the chance to get him back!"

"Some chance," he muttered, scowling as he tried to snatch the handheld back. "I cut him off, and now he doesn't even want to know me."

"You don't know that," Otogi insisted, holding the game out of reach. "Yuugi-kun's got issues; he probably didn't even notice you were trying to apologise."

"He does not have issues, now drop it and give me back my PSP!" he snapped, swinging his legs off the table to stand up.

"Are we talking about the same Yuugi-kun?" he asked, stepping out of reach when Atemu glared.

"Yuugi is not crazy."

"Not crazy, but there's no denying he's not all there," he said firmly, folding his arms over his waist. "He forgave me, didn't he? What kind of a person waves off everything I did after one heartfelt apology?"

Atemu rolled his eyes, then scowled when he heard the death music from his handheld. He had been on the sixth level without one save, too. "Your father got carried away over an old grudge. Yuugi's a nice guy, there's nothing weird about it."

"I may have… oversimplified that story," Otogi said haltingly, waving his hand dismissively.

"Oversimplified?" he repeated, frowning. "What d'you mean 'oversimplified'?"

"It doesn't matter, we're –"

"Over_simplified_?" he repeated, taking a pointed step forward, and Otogi pursed his lips, glancing in all directions as if looking for a way out. Atemu continued staring at him, so after a moment he sighed, putting the handheld down on the desk beside him.

"You remember that… retreat I went on in second year? I came back to school in third term, and everyone said I was a completely different person?"

Atemu frowned, nodding slowly. "Yeah, after that big fire at your house."

"I never went on a retreat," he admitted quietly, and Atemu raised his eyebrows. Otogi sighed again and pulled out a single dice to toy with, rolling it through his fingers. "Back in the seventies, Yuugi's grandfather was a gambling king, and one of the casinos he sent out of business was my father's. It started a whole string of bad financial decisions, and my family was on the brink of bankruptcy for almost thirty years. Dad blamed Sugoroku Mutou, and hated him for it. Everything he did, and everything he had, was to get back at Sugoroku Mutou. I was brought up like that, and told that everything that had ever gone wrong for us was because of Sugorok-san. I grew up hating a man I'd never even met.

"And then Yuugi-kun showed up in my class last year. When I found out he was Sugorok-san's grandson, I thought he deserved to die for what his family had done to mine. All I could think about was destroying him and hurting everyone he cared about," he said, lowering his gaze to the floor. "I did all sorts of things… I made Jounouch-kun dress up like a dog, and told the whole school about the girl Honda-kun liked, then got her to make fun of him. I even accidentally outed Ryou-kun and Bakura-kun only a week after they'd gotten together. Yuugi-kun got mad, of course, and I told him I'd stop if he beat me at DDM – which no one had even heard of yet. He beat me at my own game, his first time playing."

Atemu raised an eyebrow, surprised. Not just by Yuugi's skill, but by the fact that Otogi, who was who he was, and now considered one of the nicest guys in school, had been responsible for the gay-bashing that had broken Ryou's arm and nearly gotten Bakura expelled. Still, given their school, he wasn't that impressed. Everyone at Domino High had been involved in something like that at some point.

"Then my father found out," Otogi continued, crossing his arm over his chest and looking off to the side, disgusted with himself. "He decided to get some payback for the both of us."

Otogi hesitated, then looked up again, his eyes wide in a plead for understanding. "I thought we were just going to scare him – lock him up in a cupboard for a few hours, or something. I never thought Dad could ever do something like that. He almost knocked Yuugi out cold, and I realised that it was crazy. I said we had to stop and apologise, but then Dad started talking about ransom. And when I said no, he just knocked me down and said I would help or stay down by force.

"And he was my father, anyway… I did what I was told. But then, when I was taking him some food, Yuugi-kun started talking. He started shouting at Dad – telling him to let him go; how none of this would help; how neither of us wanted to do this. Dad got mad, and I told Yuugi to stop, but he wouldn't. So Dad threw a bottle of scotch to scare him, and it ended up smashing into a candlestick. That's what started the fire. That's why my dad's not around any more."

Atemu found himself staring, his eyes wide in disbelief. Everyone had known about Otogi's house burning down, and there had been dozens of rumours about why. When Otogi hadn't come back in second term, and the news reported his father having been sent to prison, the rumours started wondering if he was still alive, or if he'd maybe started the fire in the first place. Then Otogi had just suddenly shown up in school again, a completely different person. No one could figure out why.

Otogi clenched his eyes shut for a moment, steadying himself before meeting Atemu's gaze again. "I didn't mean for any of that to happen, you have to believe me. And I went to see Yuugi when he was in the hospital, to apologise and… And even after everything I'd done to him, he didn't blame me or get mad. He asked me to teach Jounouch-kun how to play DDM." He flicked his dice up into the air and caught it again, pulling his lips back in a slight frown. "After all that, you're going to have to forgive me for thinking Yuugi-kun's got a few screws loose."

Atemu turned his head slowly, staring at Otogi from the corner of his eye. "You have to be lying."

"What, you think I go to a shrink three times a week for my health?" he snapped, folding his arms. "Yuugi-kun didn't press charges against me, but my father was arrested on three different crimes. I have court ordered counselling because I was 'traumatised' for sixteen years."

"Don't joke with me, Otogi. Yuugi's family would have put a restraining order against you!" snapped Atemu. "His friends would've killed you!"

"Yeah, they wanted to," he said, then looked off to the side. "But Yuugi-kun said to stop, and we all hung out together one weekend. Now they say I'm one of them."

Atemu continued staring at him blankly for a long moment, then stepped back as he remembered his trip to Duellist Kingdom. It had seemed straight forward at the time, but he supposed everything from Pegasus' original challenge via quasi-kidnapping to randomly being thanked by Seto Kaiba's little brother for saving Kaiba Corporation with his win would have seemed just as unbelievable to someone else. He grimaced and shook his head.

"Even if he did forgive you all that, the fact remains he doesn't want to listen to me," said Atemu, folding his arms. "He doesn't want to talk to me. He didn't even care about what I had to say. So can I have my game and dignity back now?"

He stepped forward with his palm out, but Otogi snatched the game back up, his smirk stubbornly firm as he held the game like bait. "You're the one that isn't listening. When Yuugi-kun forgave me, he made me realise that there's more to life than guilt and payback. With that, I became a whole new person, marketed DDM, and became the mega-rich, stylish and wonderful person you see before you. That's a pretty big favour I owe him."

Atemu scoffed, but Otogi just raised his eyebrows, raising the game a little higher. "The way you talk about him, I'm starting to think Yuugi-kun being your one true love would be a nice bonus. You just want your friend back," he said, his smirk spreading into a grin as Atemu blinked. "Meanwhile, I'm pretty sure you have something to do with Yuugi-kun's nonexistent self-worth. You might say he's not interested in whether you live or die, but all these things add up to only one thing, near as I can see: the best thing for everyone is you getting your midget back."

* * *

Despite never having really developed a social life, Atemu had never been able to stay home for long, either. It just didn't feel like what he thought a home was supposed to be. Not that he was sure what that was, exactly, but he was sure it had something to do with his family. 

He glanced around as he entered the lounge room, only absently noting his parents on the couch. They shot him quick glances to acknowledge his presence, and he had turned away before they could return to their respective magazines. He knelt down in front of the bookcase and pushed a few of Dendera's DVDs out of the way, reaching for the dusty and long since abandoned photo album.

The older Atemu got, the less he felt the need to discuss useless information. It wouldn't have been a problem, except Atemu even felt this way about his family, and thought personal feelings and emotions should fall under the category of useless information. While his sister insisted on being a constant, annoying presence in his life, his parents respected his privacy, and left him to his silence. Unfortunately, Atemu occasionally realised, that often meant he would go weeks without speaking to them at all.

He shook his head slightly, well aware of the problem in that, and opened the photo album. His family had never really been one for photographs, but this book held a picture of the one present he thought would be perfect for Yuugi's eighteenth birthday, and he had to make sure he knew what he was thinking of.

It took him a few moments, but he finally spread the book open on the floor, his eyes narrowing at one particular picture, showcasing an object clutched in his grandmother's hands. It was the Millennium Puzzle: a box made of pure gold that supposedly held an unsolvable puzzle. His grandmother had brought it from Egypt when she migrated, and had spent his entire childhood shaking the box in his face, telling him it was a part of his heritage. Atemu had never cared about it much, but Yuugi had always loved puzzles more than anything in the world. The fact that it had never been solved would be the sort of thing that would drive Yuugi on – he lived for that kind of challenge.

Unfortunately, there were more than a few problems with this perfect gift.

As perfect as the puzzle could have been, it would be nearly impossible to give it to Yuugi. All the other presents had been small enough that he had been able to slip them into envelopes which he could shove into Yuugi's shoe locker, or (in the case of a Christmas present a few years back) hide in Yuugi's desk. This one was far too big for either possibility, and much too valuable to just leave on top of his desk. He couldn't really trust Otogi to pass it on in silence, and Dendera would probably walk up to Yuugi and say 'here, love-token from my brother' at the top of her lungs.

Even aside from giving it, _getting _it was a whole other issue. Atemu's grandmother had willed it to him along with a half-dozen other 'artefacts of his heritage', but the old bat was as healthy as she was evil, and he didn't doubt that she would still be around and picking at him when Dendera had brats of her own. She refused to just give it to him, and every time he even asked her about the box, she would offer it to him for an insane price that she knew he couldn't pay. The last offer had been four hundred thousand yen, and though he did have that money, it was in his locked bank account. Not even his parents could get that much money out of it until the lock expired on his twentieth birthday.

He shut the photo album and sat back, covering his mouth with his fist. He _wanted_ to give the Puzzle to Yuugi. He felt like he was supposed to. But the fact and truth of the matter was that after this year, his chances to ever see Yuugi again would be decreased to a downright pathetic degree. So, in some ways, this year was his last chance for… well, pretty much anything.

He hesitated, then opened the album again, flipping to the last few photographs they had put in there. Photographs were rare in the Yamino household, but he still found it amusing that the last one they had remembered to put in the book was one of himself and Yuugi.

It had been from a particularly boring day, when he and Yuugi had been watching a movie. The photo wasn't great, technically – it had been taken by Dendera when she snuck up on them, and so was at a strange angle, and out of focus. Atemu had been slouching back, one of his arms over the arm of the couch and the other hanging over Yuugi's back. Yuugi himself had been sprawled across the other two cushions, his head on Atemu's knee and arm loosely wrapped around Atemu's leg. He could remember them both hearing the click of the camera and looking up, but while being caught in such a position would have normally required retribution, that day it would have been too much effort, so they had ignored it.

Atemu furrowed his brow, brushing his finger over the picture in thought. It was a bad photograph, but to him, the picture was perfect. Every time he looked at it, he could remember collapsing back on the couch with Yuugi, and the hours they had spent in comfortable silence, not needing to talk or ask what the other was thinking. It had been their whole lives, that feeling. Neither of them cared what they did or said, because they knew it would be all right with the other.

He really missed that feeling.

He closed his eyes, cursing Otogi for what felt like the hundredth time in only two days. The idiot was right – he really did miss his friend.

He let out a slow breath, closing the photo album and putting it back in the bookcase. Unfortunately, Yuugi, like his gift, was damn hard to get a hold of. There was no way to talk to him at school. Yuugi was always surrounded by those clingy friends, and Atemu knew perfectly well that at least Anzu would refuse to give them a minute alone. Outside school was just as hard – the game shop was right out of the question, and he was pretty sure he was toeing the line of stalking just by walking to and from school via Yuugi's house, let alone following him around in the hope of cornering him.

But what other option was there? If he just called Yuugi's house, one of the other members of the family might answer. Or worse, Yuugi might answer and just hang up. A letter would be twice as cheesy and probably just as effective.

As it stood, the fact was that he was never going to get his chance. If he wanted to talk to Yuugi, he was going to have to do something different. Find a change in Yuugi's routine and exploit it.

He blinked, the most obvious and yet pathetic option suddenly springing to mind. He blinked again, considering, then sighed to himself. It might not have worked in first year, but this was a very different location, and he was much more desperate. He turned around, clearing his throat to get his parents' attention.

"I'm going on the school beach trip, this summer," he announced, and they both looked up from their magazines, nonplussed for a second, before turning to look at him.

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"That's… different," his mother said tactfully, and Atemu nodded.

"Yeah. But this is my last year of high school… it's my last chance for a lot of things," he said, and rolled his eyes at their disbelieving looks. "There's a couple of things I really need to do."

* * *

Hanging around Yuugi for as long as they had, there were certain things Jounouchi and Anzu had come to expect. One was a lot of really interesting situations. Yuugi's grandfather had told them once that it was a genetic trait started by his own grandfather, one that developed under the stress of high school (at which point Honda had gotten confused and spoiled the theory by pointing out that Japan wouldn't have had high schools back in the days of Sugoroku's grandfather. Sugoroku hadn't been impressed). Another was that Yuugi often lied about his personal well being. Badly, but somewhat pathologically. 

"I hate it when he gets like this," muttered Jounouchi, as he and Anzu started up the last staircase. "It reminds me of first year."

"Mm," she agreed. "He's not usually like this for so long… Did anything happened at the festival, do you know?"

"No idea. Me and Honda were walking around the festival pretty much all day, and Yuugi was only with us until he went on shift," he said, and Anzu blinked.

"Wait, what?" she asked, staring at him. "Yuugi was with you _until _he went on shift? His shift started at eight, he didn't have time to be with you."

Jounouchi raised an eyebrow at her, surprised. "He switched with Bakura for the afternoon shift," He paused as they reached the rooftop door, his hand on the door handle, and turned to look at her. "So Bakura wouldn't have to run to get on stage at six."

"No one told me that," she said, frowning slightly. "When did this happen?"

"While we were setting up, I think."

She grimaced, folding her arms over her waist in thought. She had been pretty busy – and job swapping was a time-honoured tradition that usually went without the festival officer's notice, so she wasn't that surprised. But there had been a reason she'd put Bakura in the two-til-six shift, she was sure. Something about…

She flinched, her eyes widening. "Oh, no."

"What?"

"I think I know what happened," she said, and pushed Jounouchi's arm down to open the door. He raised his other eyebrow at her, but she just grimaced and led the way out onto the rooftop. There were a few people hanging around outside, and a small group of guys were kicking a hacky-sack, but they didn't have to bother looking; they already knew where Yuugi would be. Whenever he wanted to hide, Yuugi always disappeared up to the rooftop to hide in the old biology students' experiment site. It was just two large troughs in the northern corner of the roof, but it was close enough to the fence that most people couldn't fit in the small hole they made. It had once been a cacti farm, but was now nothing but dried dirt and weeds, so no one ever went near it.

Sure enough, Yuugi was sitting in his tiny hole, his knees up against his chest and gaze focussed through the fence several thousand kilometres away. Jounouchi and Anzu exchanged concerned glances when he didn't even notice their presence, and then crouched in their usual positions. Jounouchi climbed up into one of the troughs, and Anzu knelt down just outside the gap Yuugi crawled through.

"What's up, Yuugi?" asked Jounouchi, and their friend jumped, twisting his neck fast enough to crack as he stared up at Jounouchi.

"Jounouch-kun! Anzu! What're you two –"

"Are you all right, Yuugi?" asked Anzu, frowning at him. "You've been really quiet these last couple of days."

He blinked, apparently surprised. "I have? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be."

"Which explains why you're hiding up here," drawled Jounouchi, and he blushed.

"It's not really hiding if you guys could find me so easy, is it?"

Anzu frowned, folding her hands over her knees. "Come on, Yuugi, you can't fool us. Tell us what's wrong."

"Nothing's wrong!" he cried, staring at them. "Honestly, after everything that's happened, don't you think I'd tell you if there was something going on?"

"No," they said bluntly, and Yuugi frowned.

"Yuug', seriously. You didn't tell us about Grandad being kidnapped, or when the Ghouls started threatening you," said Jounouchi, ticking the points off on his fingers. "You didn't tell us when Otogi's dad put you in the hospital, and you never once told us when people from school messed with you."

His blush deepened slightly, and he ducked his head, embarrassed. "You couldn't really do anything about it."

"Hell we couldn't!" he cried, punching his fist into his palm. "Didn't I get that guy from the arcade? Didn't we help sort out Kaiba?"

"That was different," he said quietly, looking off to the side, and Jounouchi grinned, reaching down to knock his fist against Yuugi's head.

"Just tell us, man! Whether we can help or not, we still wanna know!"

Yuugi smiled gratefully, but he clearly wasn't going to talk, so Anzu sighed and leaned forward. "Yuugi… What did Yamino do?"

Jounouchi raised his eyebrows as the smile vanished, then frowned when Yuugi curled around his knees again. He looked around at Anzu, confused. "Atemu Yamino? What's he got to do with anything?"

They waited, but Yuugi just looked away, and Anzu grimaced. "Yuugi, Jounouchi told me you switched shifts with Bakura. Yamino's a flake, but he doesn't skip stall shifts." She furrowed her brow, concerned, and edged as far into the gap as she could. "Did he say something? What did he do to you?"

"He didn't do anything," Yuugi muttered.

"So he said something?" she surmised. "Yuugi, it doesn't matter what he said. You've got us, he doesn't matter any more."

Yuug didn't even react, just leaning back against the fence as if bored. Jounouchi frowned, looking between the childhood friends in confusion. He had always kind of known Yuugi and Anzu had known each other since they were kids, and Anzu had made enough references that he had guessed she'd known Yamino almost as long. But he'd never put it together to guess Yuugi might have known Yamino. And the way they were talking…

He scowled, cracking his knuckles into a fist. And to think he was gonna buy that jerk hamburgers…

* * *

"Don't forget, people!" their home room teacher shouted over the sounds of their packing up. "Today's the last day to get your money and admission slips in! So if you're going on the trip and haven't yet, put your form and money—_in one single envelope_—in this box before four o'clock today. There will be no more chances!" 

Atemu was pretty sure he was one of the few people that heard her, considering the fact that she had waited until after dismissing them to remind them of the fact. That was probably fine, though – most people had done everything they could to get the trip organised faster, so they could look forward to enjoying it without having to worry. It was only the people like himself, changing their minds at the last minute, that still had to put in their forms.

He finished packing up, nodding vaguely to the people that called goodbyes to him, then grabbed his envelope out of his bag and stood up. He was supposed to be listening to some random girl's confession at three thirty, but he had seen Otogi talking to Yuugi that morning and had to make absolute sure the idiot hadn't done anything particularly stupid. The girl would probably get the hint if he just didn't show up.

"You heading straight home, Yuugi?"

Atemu slowed, watching from the corner of his eye as Yuugi slung his bag over his shoulder and turned to smile at Jounouchi. "Mm! I have to finish that chemistry lab before Friday, so Anzu and I are going to my house to work on it. But you're welcome to come over too! I just got the new Dead or Alive, and haven't played multi-player yet."

"Nah, we've got something to do at school yet," Jounouchi replied, nodding at Honda. "But hey, tomorrow, yeah?"

"Sure! Later!"

Atemu waited quietly, just watching as Yuugi and Anzu walked out, then picked up his bag and headed toward the front of the classroom. He made sure to put his envelope in the box, then started out, only to turn into the corridor and immediately find his way blocked. Jounouchi was leaning against the wall, obviously waiting for him by the way he smirked when Atemu blinked. Recognising the bully-style stance, Atemu glanced over his shoulder and was unsurprised to see Honda step out of the classroom and lean his elbow on the doorframe. A moment later, he was joined by Bakura, and then Ryou, who looked slightly guilty but firm.

Atemu sighed and turned back to Jounouchi, accepting his fate. He had expected this, after all. You couldn't even notice Yuugi without attention from his bodyguards.

"What's up?" he asked, and Jounouchi narrowed his eyes.

"I owe you a hamburger. Feeling hungry?"

"Actually, no," he said, moving to take a side step. "Maybe some other time."

Honda grabbed Atemu's shoulder and roughly pushed him back against the wall, keeping him still. "What's your rush, Yamino? We're all classmates – classmates should get to know each other."

"Yeah, but, somehow, I'm sensing I'm gonna end up paying for this hamburger," he said darkly, turning his head to talk over his shoulder.

Honda snorted, pushing Atemu's shoulder to make him walk. "Clever boy. Now move it; we're gonna talk."

"Oh, now that sounds likely," he drawled, but didn't bother to break free as Honda directed him down to the locker room, the other three following behind. The only pause was as they all stopped to switch shoes before Atemu found himself escorted out to the back of the kitchens, near the industrial bins. Honda's hand fell from his shoulder, and Atemu tossed his bag off to the side, turning around to face the group. "So. What'd I do to you this time?"

His smirk almost slipped as Jounouchi and Honda stepped up in front of him, looking as menacing as was humanly possible in Domino High's bright blue uniform. They were both very tall, and Atemu knew from gym class that Jounouchi was built like a tank under that sloppy uniform. Honda wasn't exactly lacking in muscles either, and he had shoulders to match his height. Atemu, on the other hand, was on the shorter side of average, and had to make up for his shoulder span in attitude and speed. Somehow, with these two together and Bakura behind, he had a feeling neither trait would do him much good.

"So we hear you've got history with our pal Yuugi," Jounouchi began, glaring at him. "Good friends, were you?"

He felt his smirk slip completely, staring from one bodyguard to the other in confusion.

"Because, you know, I always thought it was kinda weird that a guy like Yuugi could go fifteen years without friends," Jounouchi continued. "He's such a nice guy, but when we met him, everyone thought he was a real loser. It doesn't make sense. So I'm thinking maybe something was keeping him from having friends."

"And I've gotta say, I agree with him," Honda said lightly. "If not something, then someone."

Atemu took a deep breath, folding his arms over his chest as he fell back into familiar territory. For a second there, he'd thought they actually did want to talk.

"But then, Yuugi is kinda strange. He's obsessed with games, talks kinda girly sometimes, couldn't throw a punch to save himself—" Jounouchi raised an eyebrow when Atemu only just managed to hold back a bark of laughter. "—so I thought maybe it might just be that Yuugi's so weird that he didn't have any friends."

"That's a touching way to think of your friend; it really is," Atemu drawled, and Jounouchi's glare deepened.

"But now I think about it," Honda continued loudly, "this year, Yuugi's been acting even weirder than usual. A little quieter, a little twitchier… Almost like someone had threatened him or something. He said there was nothing wrong, and we believed him. But then there was the festival."

"Yeah, it's the weirdest thing," snapped Jounouchi. "At the festival, he spent four hours alone with you."

"And after the festival, he pretty much stopped talking altogether," said Honda.

"And we like our friend, Yamino. We like it when he talks." Jounouchi took a step forward, hunching down to meet Atemu at eye level. "You following our train of thought, here?"

He didn't answer for a moment, then smirked again, tilting his head forward to look up under his brows. "Not particularly. From hamburgers to history to festivals, this conversation's switched around enough for me to just give up and walk away. In fact, I think I might."

He didn't even get a chance to flinch before Jounouchi suddenly snatched the front of Atemu's shirt, twisting to yank Atemu off balance. "Then follow this, scumbag! You did something to my friend, and I wanna know what, now!"

"Jounouch-kun," Ryou said quietly, but no one else reacted as Jounouchi's arm rose, Atemu's shirt straining against his dog collar as he was slowly pulled up onto his toes. He grit his teeth, his eyes narrowing as Jounouchi twisted further, trying to pull the shirt over Atemu's collar and cut into his neck directly.

"What makes you think I did anything?" he snarled, but that only made Jounouchi yank higher, and Atemu's right foot slipped off the ground for a second. He grunted, grabbing Jounouchi's wrist to pull down. "I didn't do anything!"

"You're lying," Honda said simply, and Atemu glared at him from the corner of his eye.

"What d'you know?" he demanded. "I haven't touched Yuugi Mutou!"

"You don't have to touch someone to hurt them," said Bakura, his tone as casual as someone commenting on the weather. "Matter of fact, I generally find it more fun without touching."

"You would," Atemu spat, and Bakura smirked.

"Witty."

"Look, Yamino, we don't care what you did before high school," said Honda, folding his arms. "What's happened, happened. But you mess with our friend now, and you're gonna have to pay for it."

"Dammit, you just don't listen!" He slammed his free fist into Jounouchi's elbow, forcing it to bend or break, and then release Atemu's shirt in the process. He shoved Jounouchi back, and they stumbled apart, glaring at each other as they did. Jounouchi fell back to stand by Honda, both of them raising their fists, but Atemu just grunted and straightened his shirt, then put his hand on his hip to make as irritated an image as possible. "I said it before, and I won't say it again. I did not do anything to Yuugi Mutou!"

"Oh yeah?" asked Honda. "If you're so innocent, then how come you weren't surprised when we cornered you?"

"Oh, right. After two years of getting into fights with you and your pal back there, I should be real shocked when the three of you decide to fight dirty," he snapped, then blinked when Ryou suddenly coughed. He glanced at him, and Ryou raised his eyebrows, silently asking a question Atemu couldn't guess. The others didn't seem to notice, though, and Honda and Jounouchi just exchanged looks before straightening up, still scowling.

"So what happened at the festival?" asked Jounouchi, and Atemu leaned back on his hips, lifting his chin in defiance of the truth.

"Nothing. We talked for five minutes, tops," he said, then smirked as the strategy part of his mind finally kicked in. "Why? Your 'little pal' accusing me of something?"

Ryou's eyes narrowed, and Atemu mentally swallowed as he realised his act had been completely seen through. Luckily, the others didn't seem to notice, and they exchanged glances, carrying out what seemed like a full conversation with their eyes. Fascinated by the silent communication, Atemu had to blink when Jounouchi suddenly turned away, and Honda nodded.

"Whatever," he said, but kept glaring regardless. "Just stay the hell away from him."

Jounouchi tsked, and the two of them stalked off around the corner, not bothering to wait for their friends. Bakura shrugged and followed, then paused when he realised Ryou hadn't moved.

"Hey," he called, but Ryou only glanced at him once before turning back to Atemu, gazing at him like some kind of puzzle.

Atemu raised an eyebrow, and Ryou slowly walked forward, not stopping until they were face to face. Ryou's brow furrowed as he leaned forward, his gaze flicking between Atemu's eyes. "You're…" He hesitated, then stopped and leaned back, still with that same look on his face. "About Yuugi-kun… you should be careful."

Atemu blinked, his head pulling back out of confusion. It didn't sound like a threat or warning… it almost sounded like simple advice. He hesitated, his mouth opening to ask a question he couldn't quite grasp in his mind.

"Ryousei! Move it!"

Atemu flinched, but Ryou just smiled, nodding once before turning to rejoin Bakura, who glared at Atemu and pointedly slung his arm around Ryou's shoulders. They then walked off, leaving him alone with the bins and his bag.

Atemu blinked again, staring after them in confusion, then sighed and threw his hands up. Otogi was right again: with friends like that, Yuugi had to be crazy.

* * *

"What d'you think?" 

Jounouchi shook his head, hunching over with his hands in his pockets. While Bakura and Ryou had disappeared only moments after returning from the classroom with their school bags, he and Honda had decided to swing by Yuugi's house after all, just to make sure Anzu had managed to pull him out of his funk.

"I still think Yamino's got something to do with all this," he said firmly. "I mean, you think about it. Yuugi's been even jumpier than usual this year, and it's been an entire term without one of us being screwed around. It doesn't make sense for him to be on edge."

"Yeah, but I dunno. Yamino doesn't really seem the type to mess with people's heads," said Honda, and he looked up at the sky in thought. "Remember when we messed him up in first year? He got pissed off, and fought back, but it was nothing like Kaiba or Otogi."

Jounouchi scowled at the memories, but had to agree. "Yeah, but… Anzu didn't tell me exactly what happened, but she said Yamino caused some problems for them back in middle school. Don't you think it's weird that Yuugi just happens to get all twitchy the year he winds up in the same class as a guy that screwed with him before?"

"What're you thinking?"

"I dunno. I'm just thinking there's more going on here than we know," he said quietly. They walked along in silence for a minute, before Jounouchi suddenly cried out, furiously scratching his head with his free hand. "Dammit! Middle school's bad karma! Nothing you do and no one you know in middle school is good for you!"

Having known him for five years running, Honda punched him for the insult, then tilted his head forward in interest. "You thinking something serious here, Jounouchi?"

"I dunno. But I've got a bad feeling about this, and if turns out Yamino does have something to do with it…" He cracked his knuckles, his eyes narrow as he glanced back toward the school. "No one messes with my little buddy and gets away with it."

There was a beat of silence, the words hanging thick and heavy in the air. Honda blinked and looked at him sideways. "Except you, then, huh?"

"Ah –" He face-faulted, then jumped back up to slug Honda's shoulder. "I was being dramatic, dammit!"

* * *

_**Bit of a fic for you, some nice reviews for me?**_


	3. The Need

Chapter 3 – **_The Need_**

**DISCLAIMER**: Two men walked into a bar, which is funny, because you'd think one of them would've ducked.

* * *

Most of the time, Atemu rather liked trains. Trains were always full of people just like him: irritable and trying to avoid all human contact. Unfortunately, this happy view had been ruined the moment he discovered the school trip would start and end with a train ride.

He slung himself down into the aisle seat of the row furthest from the door, but kept his backpack in his lap. While he usually avoided eye contact with the people that crowded around him and called themselves his friends, he had made sure to exchange glances with Otogi on the platform, who had smiled and nodded back. If he had to be annoyed on a two-hour train and twenty-minute bus ride, he wanted it to be by Otogi.

Sure enough, he had only managed to read a sign of safety rules twice before a weight hit the back of his seat, and Otogi's long, leather bound legs stepped over Atemu's backpack. He raised an eyebrow as Otogi sank down into the window seat beside him.

"You know, most people would have just asked me to get up or move over."

"I know you better. You like pretty boys invading your personal space."

He snorted, and Otogi grinned, leaning back against the window. "I can't believe you actually went through with this. Your aloof image is going to be ruined."

"I already noticed," he said, grimacing. "On the platform, Danikeno, Herijiwa and Suzuki decided to talk to me."

"Yeah, I noticed that. And you talked back." He put a hand to his mouth, considering. "You know, this whole 'last chance' thing has really done something to you. If I didn't know better, I'd say you were an actual human being."

Atemu glared at him, but Otogi was well practiced in ignoring it. He leaned his arm over the back of Atemu's seat and twisted around to see who else was in their carriage. "But talking about you coming along, you do know we have to sleep in cabins, don't you? Four to a building. I talked to Teacher Yamaguchi, and she agreed to change my partner-arrangement to you instead of Hirayama, but I've got no idea who we'll be matched with."

"As long as it isn't one of your cheerleaders in drag, I don't care," he said lazily.

"Mm… or Bakura-kun. He scares the crap out of me."

"The fact his little girlfriend has him wrapped around his finger missed you, did it?"

Otogi grimaced, his green eyes flashing as he made sure Bakura was in another carriage and therefore completely out of earshot. "The teachers wouldn't let those two sleep in the same cabin, meaning he would have to be paired up with someone other than Ryou-kun. Quite possibly Honda-kun. And Honda-kun's worse, because he's annoying."

"I thought you were supposed to be part of their little gang," said Atemu, glancing up at him, and Otogi shrugged without returning the look.

"I am. But only part-time, and Honda-kun's never really forgiven me for noticing Jounouch-kun's little sister," he said, then grinned and looked down. "She was really cute."

"Jounouchi's little sister… but Honda was the one that got mad?"

"Yeah, Jounouch-kun didn't really notice me because he was busy being mad at Honda-kun for trying to flirt with her. Don't know why, though… he wasn't very good at it."

Atemu chuckled, and Otogi turned around just as the train lurched forward to begin their journey. The two fell silent, watching the window as they left the station, and Otogi sat back to play with his hair. It was mid-morning, and the sky was a crisp blue, but he still frowned at a few clouds on the very edge of the horizon. "I hope those aren't rain clouds."

"It is summer," Atemu warned, leaning over to look too. "With humidity like this, it's always possible."

"Mm, but if rain comes, no one will want to spend time on the beach," he said, frowning. "Which, far as I can see, makes it just like school."

"Hardly. We've gone swimming in gym, and you've seen everything there is to see. What's the difference whether we're in the pool or the beach?"

"That's not what I'm talking about," he said. "I'm talking about the reason you're on this trip. I told you before – you being successful matters to me."

Atemu raised his eyebrow again, confused. "And?"

"Obviously, if there's rain, then everyone will stay inside," he said, gesturing at nothing. "Which basically means that there will be no way to get Yuugi-kun away from the others."

"A minor detail," he said dismissively.

Otogi scoffed, turning to face him a little more. "A minor detail? Jounouch-kun, Honda-kun, Anzu-chan and the lunatic are minor details?"

"The lunatic is kept on a leash by a girly boy, Honda always follows Jounouchi's lead in a fight, and Jounouchi is a Duellist," he said, ticking the things off on his fingers. "He's an honourable Duellist, too. He would fight his battles with cards, if the opponent suggested it."

Otogi frowned. "Wait a second. Last I checked, I was the positive one in this situation. Your attitude has done a complete turn around in less than a week. What happened?"

"Now you mention it, I did get threatened," he said, smirking. "Jounouchi, Honda, Bakura and Ryou cornered me last Wednesday and told me to stay away from Yuugi."

"Isn't that a bad thing?"

He shook his head. "They said Yuugi had been acting strangely, and not talking much. He might've changed over the years, but the Yuugi I knew was only really quiet when he had something to think about," he said firmly. "They said he'd been quiet since the festival, which means he's thinking about _me_."

Otogi stared at him blankly, then shook his head and leant forward. "So they know you're the problem. This still seems like a bad thing to me."

"Oh, no. This changes everything," he said firmly. "If Yuugi's thinking about me, and has really gotten so thick as to forgive you what you did, then the possibility of success actually rises to a positive number. We've got a whole six days in a foreign environment. Foreign environments make people do things they would never do at home."

Otogi leaned back again, concerned over the sudden attitude reversal. "I don't know, Yamino-kun…"

"I have it all worked out," he said, nodding. "This trip allows for me to constantly be in Yuugi's area of attention, just by existing in the same hotel—"

"Resort."

"—whatever. The more he notices me, the more he'll think about me. The more he thinks about me, the more likely he is to listen to what I have to say," he said, and sat back in his seat with a smirk. "This trip and your help makes the idea of Yuugi liking me again actually plausible."

Otogi blinked, then huffed out a laugh, recognising the look in Atemu's eyes. "You're as crazy as Yuugi-kun. This is all just a strategy game to you!"

"That's all life is, Otogi."

* * *

"Each student will be required to perform one duty," said Ms. Yamaguchi, who was ruling over the beach trip with what closely resembled an iron fist of hugs and kisses.

Yamaguchi was an enigma to most of the senior year of Domino High. She varied between moments of evil (screeching orders and reprimands without apparent reason) and suffocating mothering, worrying about them to an embarrassing degree. Most students wondered if she was insane, none could understand her, and several just didn't like her.

Yuugi thought she was wonderful, and she loved him in return.

"The three of you will be in charge of recording this soon-to-be-memory," she said, smiling around at Yuugi, Ryou and Jounouchi. Bakura and Honda stood off to the side, waiting for their own instructions, but Yamaguchi didn't seem to have noticed. "You are, from this moment on, the photography team, and I expect you to view your position with the utmost responsibility."

"So, basically, keep Jounouchi away from pretty much everything," said Honda, grinning at Jounouchi's returning growl.

Yamaguchi continued to ignore him, handing the school camera kit to Ryou. "On the first Monday of next term, I expect a collection of your fifty best—"

"_Fifty_?" Jounouchi cried, horrified.

"—fifty best shots, which I and the other chaperoning teachers will filter to a total of twenty, which will be put in the end of year book," she announced, over Jounouchi's whimpering. "We will require moments captured at the campfire, dance, races, and volleyball events. It will be expected that these photographs will feature a wider variety of people than your usual comrades. I would think I should be able to mark social attendance from your photographs, understand?"

Yuugi and Ryou exchanged glances, concerned over their chances for success. For anyone else, the suggestion would have been annoying but simple. They, however, kept on the outskirts of their classmates' attention for a reason.

"Good," she said, and then held out four keys, attached to plastic cards which were cut into the shape of the English symbols '3A'. "These are for your cabin. We overestimated the amount of people that would come on our trip this year, and as such, we have more room than anticipated. The other teachers and I have therefore decided that you may be granted an exception, Bakura-kun, and will not require a partner as everyone else in camp. As such, there will only be three of you in your cabin."

They all nodded, each taking a key to look over, and Yamaguchi pocketed the fourth. "I will be keeping this, and making random inspections in the evenings to ensure you do not have any… late-night visitors."

Jounouchi smirked at Ryou, who blushed, and Bakura scowled behind the teacher's back. Just because she didn't want him there didn't mean he couldn't—

"Makinda-kun!" Yamaguchi snapped, and Bakura raised an eyebrow as she turned to look at him. "Understand that if I do find you pursuing any late-night activities in cabins you were not assigned keys for, you will be punished accordingly. As will any of those involved."

He scowled at her openly this time, but she only glanced at Ryou in warning before opening the bag she had hung over her shoulder. "Makinda-kun, Honda-kun, you will be in cabin nine, sharing with Herijiwa-kun and Fujitsu-kun. You will be required to provide for and man the bonfire we shall be lighting on Wednesday night."

"No way!" Jounouchi shouted, flailing his pointing finger at Honda's chest. "That's not fair, Teacher! Why do we get so much work when they just have to find a few lumps of firewood?"

"'Cause we're just that much cooler than you, Jounouchi," said Honda, but Yamaguchi ignored them both, holding out keys attached to English '9's.

"This is so not fair," moaned Jounouchi, as Yamaguchi moved on to the next group. "Do you guys realise how much work this whole photography thing is gonna be? We're not gonna get any free time at all!"

"I'm not sure about that," mused Yuugi, looking over his shoulder to where Anzu was talking with the group of girls she was being forced to stay with. "She only said we had to have photos of the events. And she didn't say they had to be candid."

"That's true," Ryou murmured thoughtfully. "The campfire, dance, races and volleyball match… The volleyball match is on Wednesday, and the bonfire's after that; the dance is Friday night and the races we have to be at anyway for extra sports credit. If we take lots of photos then, and get everyone to pose for them…"

"But will they pose?" asked Honda. "It's not like people go out of their way to help us stay out of trouble."

Yuugi put a hand to his chin, and Jounouchi dropped to the ground, crossing his arms and legs. They thought in silence for a moment, until Bakura sighed loudly, rolling his eyes. "Damn, midget, will you ever learn to think? You have connections. Use them!"

Yuugi blinked and looked up, perplexed, and Bakura stared at him incredulously.

"Dice-boy! Dice-boy is popular, and you're friends with him," he said, waving at him. "Most of the people here are at his goddamn beck and call. That means they're at yours."

"Hey yeah!" cried Jounouchi, thumping his fist into his palm. "That jerk's got every girl in the year wrapped around his little finger! And the girls've got all the guys!"

"Otogi probably could spin it to make people want to help us," said Honda, though his head was still bowed and he looked cautious. "He'd do it if _you _asked, Yuugi."

Yuugi frowned, glancing over his shoulder to Anzu again. Her group had been accosted by one of the teachers, and Anzu was looking utterly horrified at whatever he was saying. He pursed his lips, twisting around to look for Otogi. He was standing near the bus with Atemu Yamino, both of them staring at yet another teacher, who was clearly ruining their trip just like everyone else's.

"Mm… I don't know…" he said slowly. "He's been acting a little strangely lately, don't you think?"

"So's the rest of the year – it's called third-year stress," said Jounouchi, leaning back on his hands. "Just ask him. Can't hurt, right?"

Yuugi pursed his lips but said nothing, and Ryou shrugged, turning away from the conversation to open the camera kit. He quickly worked out all its functions and turned it on, raising it up to focus on the two buses they had taken from the train station. "It's still another few minutes before we're allowed to go get our suitcases," he said, frowning as he tried to get a few students into the shot. "We might as well make use of it."

He started clicking away, and Yuugi and Honda sank down to sit on either side of Jounouchi, still frowning thoughtfully. Already bored of his partner's friends, Bakura wandered away to observe their surroundings. While one of the teachers had gone inside to check in, the students were forced to wait in the sandy car park outside the resort, walled in on three sides by a large, sandstone boundary. It was at least two and a half metres tall, but the resort roofs were clearly visible, tiled with ridiculously bright turquoise. To the left, Bakura could hear the swimmers' beach, and beyond the resort's long driveway he could just make out the large collection of trees Honda had spotted and called a rainforest. Bakura narrowed his eyes at it, wondering if he could convince Ryou to leave the compound and spend an afternoon under the trees.

"This trip is going to suck!"

He glanced over his shoulder in time to see Anzu stalk up to the group, looking much more uncomfortable than her irritated tone sounded.

"What's wrong?" asked Yuugi, twisting around to look at her.

"I'm on the student safety team," she said, folding her arms tight around her. "You know, the group that goes around every morning to make sure no one got kidnapped overnight?"

"The roll call team, yeah," said Honda, and she nodded, grimacing.

"Even aside from it being a lousy job, the other people on it are the last people I want to work with," she said. "Miho-chan's great—I mean, she is my partner—and I can handle Otogi-kun. But then there's Danikeno, Meikada, Hirayama, Shinsu, and –!" She cut herself off, shifting her weight to the other foot. "I really don't want to have spend time with them."

Yuugi frowned, gazing up at her worriedly. "Can you switch?"

"Mm-mm," she said, shaking her head. "Teacher Yamaguchi said she's trying to forge ties between people who don't normally get along. I don't know why she's making me do it – I did already agree to sleep in the same cabin as Miho's airhead friends."

"Who don't you get along with?" asked Honda. "Yeah, you've punched out Hirayama for trying to flip your skirt before, but you've done that to pretty much everyone."

"Oh, bite me," she said, but her heart wasn't in it, and she knelt down beside Yuugi, frowning to herself. "Just trust me. There's some people I'm better off not spending time with."

* * *

"Oi, move it, kid!"

Atemu scowled at the 'kid' but stepped back two paces to stand beside Otogi, only moments before the first suitcase landed right where he had been standing. He moved to set his hands on his hips, but was stopped by a racking sneeze that swung his usually perfect hair into his face and made him cough.

Otogi raised his eyebrows, smirking. "Someone talking about you, Yamino-kun?"

"Shut up," he muttered, shoving his hair back from his face. "It's the sand."

"Isn't your father from Egypt? Shouldn't you be genetically predisposed to sand?"

He glared at him, rolling his shoulders and setting his hands back on his hips. "Only if you're a technological genius," he said irritably, then looked away in a signal to change the subject. "Which cabin are we in, again?"

"Ahh…" Otogi fished their keys back out of his vest pocket, holding one set up to check the key ring. "Six-A. With Hirayama-kun and Shinsu-kun."

"Joy of joys," he drawled. "I say we get our bags as soon as they come out of the bus and go grab the best beds, what about you?"

"Ooh, that sounds like a plan. If there's a double bed in there, I have to get it quick so Shinsu-kun doesn't claim it and decide that means he can invite his girlfriend to stay in our cabin. She's really loud."

Atemu looked at him sideways, raising an eyebrow. "I hope you mean in conversation."

"Now, would I ever kiss and tell?"

He smirked, tilting his head. "I wouldn't normally say this about a man, Otogi, but you're a slut."

"I am not! I only ever have my sights set on one person at a time," he said, then blinked. "In fact, I don't have my sights set on anyone at the moment. How depressing."

Atemu huffed out a chuckle, turning his gaze back to the unloading bags. "Good. You're absolutely useless when you're distracted."

"About that," he said, frowning. "Exactly what am I supposed to do? At school, you didn't want me telling Yuugi-kun anything, and either he or Anzu-chan changed the topic whenever I tried to bring you up in conversation. I'm more than ecstatic to help, but I'm sensing you have a plan, and I don't know how it's going to work."

"Your job will be distraction," he said, narrowing his eyes as he noticed his suitcase being picked up. "Bodyguards are all well and amusing, but I'm pretty sure I'll be on the receiving end of a fist if they're around when my plans fail."

"_When_?"

He grimaced silently, darting forward to grab his bag only a moment after it hit the ground. He waited until Otogi's over sized sports' bag had hit the dirt before turning away, knowing Otogi would collect it and hurry after him. "Everything takes time. I'm fully prepared for and expecting rejection the first few times I try anything."

"What are you, building XP?" he asked jokingly, but Atemu just tilted his head again.

"In a manner of speaking."

"Of course." He rolled his eyes and followed Atemu through the crowd to the resort entrance. "Why do I even bother with gamers? None of you make any sense."

"If you don't understand us, you shouldn't have joined the game design industry," he replied, and Otogi shook his head in frustration. "Look, instead of rambling on about nothing, why don't you put that mouth of yours to work and tell me what Yuugi's plans are for this trip."

"What makes you think I know?"

Atemu glanced at him, surprised, and Otogi smiled. "I do, of course, but still."

He smirked, looking around as they passed through the compound entrance. It was much prettier than it had looked from the outside, though it was clear as to how their school had been able to hire the place, in summer vacation, for an entire week. It had the tacky style of a hotel that made its money from location, not service: the best building, unlike the sandstone fence and cabins, was made from red brick and advertised itself as reception and restaurant. The cabins themselves promised cheap accommodation. The boys exchanged glances and started down a path lined with scrub-bush toward the first of the cabins.

"From what I've seen, Yuugi-kun's been a little stressed out this year, and Honda-kun told me they want him to relax," said Otogi, as he absently checked the cabin doors for their numbers. "Knowing them, that means they'll probably spend as little time with the general student populace as possible, so your first problem is actually finding them at any given time."

Atemu nodded thoughtfully. Being in the same workgroup as Anzu Mazaki could probably help him there, but he would probably only see her for a few minutes every day. They stepped into a grassy courtyard that centred on a beautiful old well and was surrounded by a network of cabins. The courtyard was lined with the older cabins, each of which had their numbers displayed in chipping white paint on their roofs. 6A was diagonally opposite to a path that looked like it led on to the beach, and Atemu led the way over, motioning for Otogi to continue.

"I know Jounouch-kun was looking forward to the water, and Anzu-chan was planning on getting a deep tan," he said slowly. "But it's still Yuugi-kun and his friends, so they'll probably spend most of their time playing games. Not necessarily indoor games, though, because Yuugi-kun was getting excited about trying out a water Frisbee he'd bought."

Atemu nodded again as they started up the stairs to their cabin, and Otogi passed over the key Atemu hadn't bothered to take from their teacher. He started struggling with the lock, and Otogi went on as he watched.

"I should probably warn you, though, that Jounouch-kun and Honda-kun have both been asking about you lately. I know you said they threatened you and that it was a _good_ thing, but they're under the impression you ruined Yuugi-kun's life in middle school—"

"Which I did," he grunted as the door finally opened. They peered inside, Otogi squinting in the dim light, and Atemu nodded in quiet appreciation. It was fairly large, considering, with the front room combining with the entrance hall to make a lounge-kitchen. The kitchen part was only an unplugged microwave and electric kettle, but the couch could easily seat five and the table was a good size to match. There were three open doors beyond the genkan, and Atemu pulled off his boots to go investigate.

"I don't know, Yamino-kun. You definitely changed his life, and from what I can guess there were a couple of really bad years there," said Otogi, still squinting as he searched for a light switch. "But his friends are good people. I think he turned out to have a pretty good life, really."

"Even though you think he's lost his way on the path to mental health."

Otogi grinned as he turned the lights on. "Yeah, well, we're all right there with him. And continuing on," he said, tossing his bag over the back of the couch. "—Jounouch-kun and Honda-kun are convinced you're responsible for every crappy thing that ever happened to Yuugi-kun before they met him, and are sure you're trying to do something to him again."

Atemu shrugged, gazing around the second bedroom. The first had contained a double bed, and the second door had revealed a shower-and-toilet bathroom. This room held two single beds, and Atemu frowned as he wondered if the teachers expected two boys to sleep in the double bed together. And if they did, would he be forced to share a room with Hirayama or Shinsu? Otogi had leered at him far too many times over the past two years for him to ever consider sharing a bed with him. Maybe the couch was an option…

"You have to remember that this group has dealt with a lot of weird stuff over the past couple of years. Jounouch-kun and Honda-kun don't just fancy themselves as protectors: half they time they literally are," said Otogi. "Anzu-chan's the same, and Ryou-kun empathises with Yuugi-kun. Bakura-kun likes to make Ryou-kun happy, so if anything worries Yuugi-kun, usually Bakura-kun will do something about it."

Atemu paused, glancing back at him. "What'd you say about Ryou?"

"If something is bothering Yuugi-kun, Ryou-kun's usually the one he talks to," he said. "But Ryou-kun never does anything about anything, so he just gets upset. I'm assuming that he doesn't put out when he's depressed, because Bakura-kun generally works to keep Yuugi as happy as possible."

He hesitated, then frowned, leaning back against the doorframe. "Ryou was there when the idiots threatened me. He gave me this look, like he knew what I was thinking."

"Ryou-kun's creepy like that sometimes," he agreed, but Atemu shook his head.

"This was different. When he talked to me, it wasn't a warning, it was like…" He trailed off, thinking, and Otogi raised his eyebrows.

"Care to elaborate, Yamino-kun?"

"Not really. I'm not sure what I'm thinking," he said quietly, then looked up. Unlike Jounouchi, Honda and Anzu, Ryou was a factor he couldn't predict in this game. Ryou was even quieter than Yuugi, so almost no one knew him, and that one moment back at school had unnerved Atemu more than he cared to admit. But he couldn't afford to think on that. "Whatever it is, it doesn't affect my first plan of attack. I don't really expect to get anywhere with this, but it will make sure that Yuugi's aware I'm here."

"What is it?"

"It's simple," he said, glancing at the open door as he noticed a few other students now walking around outside. "Come on and let's set ourselves up; then I'll tell you what I've got in mind."

* * *

The best thing about early morning was the silence.

Otogi had always loved getting up early – he could sit alone in the quiet with a large mocha, pretend there was no one else in the world, and remind himself of how far he'd come in less than a year and how wonderful life was. It had become a ritual since the fire; almost like meditation.

So one of the best things about being on vacation was how much easier his ritual became. His mother wasn't there, stumbling around with a hangover as she tried to make the house clean before work. He didn't have school to think about. And his roommates slept like the dead.

That last one was probably the best thing.

It was five thirty, and he had only just nestled back into the couch, his hands curled around the coffee at his chest, when something slammed into the front door.

"Shit!" he cried, then yelped as a large dollop of coffee spilled down over his hands. "Dammit! Ouch!"

"Otogi-kun!" called a muffled voice. Otogi stared at the door, vaguely recognising Miho 'Ribbon' Nosaka's sweet but oh-so-high voice.

"Otogi-kun, was that you?" she called again, thumping on the door.

"Otogi-kun, it's Anzu and Miho-chan," called Anzu, and he sighed, flicking one hand to get some of the coffee off. He had spent so much time planning with Atemu and complaining about the restaurant food last night that he'd completely forgotten their duties.

"Coming!" He transferred his coffee to the other hand, flicking his now free one, and headed over to the door. "Where are the others?" he asked as he pulled it open. The two girls were shivering in their school tracksuits, their arms folded over their chests and bouncing to keep warm.

Anzu rolled her eyes, scowling. "Daikeno-san and Meikada-san were in need in make up before seeing Yamino and you," she said, then raised an eyebrow as Miho squealed and ducked past Otogi to get inside. "Can we come in?"

"Yeah, sure. You want coffee? There's ordinary stuff, or I brought mocha with me."

"Do you have tea?" she asked, but was drowned out by Miho cheering "Mocha, mocha!"

Otogi grinned and closed the door behind Anzu, then led the way over to the kitchenette cupboard. "Good thing you remembered – I completely forgot about duty."

"Anzu-chan's so responsible!" chirped Miho. "She set the alarm early and reminded us all before we went to bed. I was so tired, though, I almost fell asleep again!"

He smiled, setting out as many mugs as he could find and putting coffee in three, mocha in one, and a teabag in the last. "Can you make the coffee while I go wake up the others?"

Anzu nodded, flipping the kettle on, and Otogi headed over to the first bedroom. Realising there were only three beds, Otogi and Atemu had left the double to the other two, thinking the straight boys would be better off there. "Guys, wake up! The girls are here!"

"Huh?"

"Girls?"

Shinsu and Hirayama pushed themselves up onto their elbows, but Shinsu's eyes were still closed and Hirayama's may as well have been, they were so bleary. Otogi grinned. "Work calls. Anzu-chan and Miho-chan are making coffee. Make yourselves look good before the other two girls get here."

"Coffee?

"Girls?"

"Wait, work?"

He left it at that, but raised his voice before he even started walking toward the other bedroom, just to make sure they didn't fall asleep. "We've got an hour and a half before breakfast starts, and we're supposed to check everyone off before then! Get up and moving, everyone!" He took a sip of his mocha, preparing himself for the task of waking Atemu Yamino – self-confessed log. "Good luck to me."

He pushed open the door, and was completely unsurprised to see Atemu exactly the same as he'd left him only half an hour before: curled up under the blankets like they were some kind of cocoon. He sighed and walked over, raising his foot to push at Atemu's back. "Hey, wake up, Yamino-kun!"

He grunted in response, and Otogi pushed a little harder. "Yamino-kun, we've got work. Get up!"

"Bite me," he growled.

"Don't say things if you won't follow through," he said teasingly, and Atemu groaned.

"G'way…!"

"Come on, the girls are already here! Get up!"

He muttered something inaudible and pulled the blankets further over his head. Otogi rolled his eyes and stood back, at a loss. After a moment, Anzu poked her head into the room, her eyebrows raised. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing doing," he said, gesturing to Atemu with his coffee. She blinked at the lump of blankets for a moment, then huffed and walked over, putting her hands on her hips.

"Yamino! Up!"

There was a pause, and Atemu rolled over, raising his head just enough to peer at her blearily. "Mazaki?"

"Yeah. Get up!" she ordered, and his eyes narrowed.

"Just what I wanted to see in the morning," he muttered, then sighed and sat up, the blankets pooling around his waist as he glared at them both from under his eyebrows. "That coffee had better be mine."

"No, this is mocha. That is, mine," he said, pulling it closer to his chest. "Yours is still being made."

He grunted, then scratched his hair, as if that would wake him up. After another thirty seconds he yawned and shook his head. "Get out, the pair of you," he said, swinging his legs out of bed. "I need to get dressed."

They exchanged looks, but did as instructed, shutting the door behind them. By the time Atemu came out, dressed in black jeans and a tight shirt, the coffee was cooling and the two other girls were there. They and Miho quietly moaned over his appearance, and everyone else beyond Otogi scowled.

"So what do we actually have to do?" asked Hirayama, more to distract the girls than out of any desire to know.

"Otogi's got the list," Atemu muttered before burying himself in his coffee.

"The year group is divided into four," said Otogi, grabbing four clipboards off the table. "Which are each divided into cabins. We go around checking off everyone on our lists."

"It's too early for lists," groaned Shinsu.

"It's too early to be awake," added Daikeno, staring longingly at Miho's coffee.

"I didn't even know there was a five o'clock on holidays," agreed Meikada. "I thought this time of the morning only existed when you had middle school exams."

"Hah! For archery, we have to be at school by six every morning," said Hirayama, and the two girls gasped in admiration.

Anzu rolled her eyes over her tea, then swallowed and looked up. "Well, I suggest we break up into pairs and get it done as quick as possible," she said, and the others nodded.

"Ne, Daikeno-san, you want to pair with me?" offered Shinsu, and she nodded.

"Meikada?" asked Hirayama.

"Sure!"

"Ooh! We're pairing up with boys! I'll be with Otogi-kun!" said Miho, bouncing over to clink their mugs together, and he winked at Atemu, who just stared back, horrified.

"But that leaves me – "

"I don't want to be –"

Hearing the other speak, Anzu and Atemu both cut themselves off, glared at each other, then scoffed and turned away. Otogi leaned over to whisper in Atemu's ear, "_He's _her best friend, remember?"

Atemu grimaced, then looked at Anzu sideways, who raised her eyes to the ceiling in search of patience or providence, or anything to get her out of the situation.

"Well… if that's what everyone else wants," she said resignedly, and Atemu raised his mug to hide his scowl.

"I don't care."

"Great, it's settled!" announced Otogi, and he passed around the clipboards. "There's thirty-three cabins, which makes eight each—pretty much—which means we can get it done before seven and get to breakfast while everyone's still wondering why someone knocked on their door."

"Such joy," Atemu drawled, then finished his coffee and led the way to the door.

* * *

As it turned out, getting people to open their doors before seven on a holiday was a fool's errand. After half an hour had passed and they'd only gotten through two cabins, Atemu had made the suggestion of giving up on politeness. Windows had to have been made for a reason, after all.

Although loathe to agree with anything Atemu suggested, the cold morning wind was making itself known under Anzu's tracksuit. She had grudgingly agreed.

"And to think," she muttered, jumping up to grip the high window frame and pull herself up. "I could be doing sit ups right now."

"You do sit-ups?" he asked, forcing his sneer down to a smirk. "That's…"

"If you say anything about a typical girl, I will kick your arse to Okinawa. It's necessary for dancing, okay?" she snapped, before nodding to herself and dropping back to the ground. "I saw one person in there. Don't know where the other is."

"I'll give you a leg up and you can check the bathroom," he said, and she stared at him.

"What? No!"

"Well, I can't do it. If one of the girls caught me, I'd be arrested," he said irritably, and she sighed.

"Fine. But if you feel me up, I will scream so loud…"

He snorted, leading the way over to the bathroom window. "Don't flatter yourself."

She rolled her eyes for what felt like the millionth time that morning, but accepted his helping hand as she climbed up onto his knee, and just clenched her teeth as he gripped her legs to hoist her up to the high window. She peered in, then nodded and motioned for him to lower her again. "Shower," she said as he dropped her.

"Since when do you dance?" he asked as he moved over to the next window.

"I've been dancing since I was five."

He glanced at her, surprised, then shrugged and leapt up the wall, bracing himself around the window with one arm and leg as he looked inside. "Yep, that makes all four," he reported, jumping back down to mark their clipboard. "I don't remember you ever dancing when we were little."

"Well, you should," she said irritably. "I don't remember how many times Yuugi came to my dance recitals. From age ten."

He frowned, trying to remember, and she shifted uncomfortably for a moment before turning to the next cabin. "Not that you would've cared, though, I guess."

They kept quiet for the next two cabins, only speaking when they needed to mark someone down, or when the impossible happened and a girl actually opened the door at their knock. She reported everyone inside and asleep, and they went on to the next.

Atemu had just finished knocking on the door when he turned to face her again. "Are you any good?"

"What?" she asked, distracted by the front window she was peering into.

"At dancing. Are you any good?" he repeated, and she gave him a look.

"What do you care?"

"I don't," he said, then grimaced and shrugged. "I'm making conversation."

"Why?" she asked blankly.

"Because – I don't know why," he said, and leaned back against the porch railing, shaking his head. "I must have hit my head at some point, because, for a second, I actually believed all those rumours that you're a reasonable person to talk to."

She stared at him for a moment, then threw up one hand and turned to look at him. "Yes. Well, no, I'm never going to be that good – you have to be stick thin to be any good at dancing, but –"

He raised an eyebrow, looking her up and down in search of the fat that would keep her from being any good, and she rolled her eyes.

"Just believe me on this. I'm good for my body type, but that's not great," she said, then glanced at the door and shrugged to show they should give up on waiting. "You do ninja, don't you?"

"A little," he said, glancing off to the side as they went back down the steps. "Just to stay in shape."

"Are you any good?"

"I'm okay with scythes and staffs," he said vaguely, then glanced at her. "How'd you know?"

She grimaced as they went around the side of the cabin, but didn't speak until she had climbed up to check the first bedroom and dropped back down. "I think Yuugi told me once," she said distractedly, taking the clipboard from him. "And besides, your life isn't exactly the school's best kept secret, you know."

"What?"

"You have a fan club," she said, throwing him a look he chose to interpret as irritable, though there was something strange about it. "Pretty much everything you do is common knowledge."

He stiffened, frowning at her, and she laughed.

"Nothing personal. Well, I suppose it's personal to you, but it's not like who you're dating or anything. Your fan club doesn't think you've actually _had _a girlfriend," she said, giving him another strange look, and this time he read it as scornful. "According to Meikada-san, your lips are skilfully virginal."

He blinked, then snorted and walked past her to check the second bedroom. "Skilful, yes," he said, pausing to climb up and check the window before continuing. "Virginal… not so much."

She groaned, covering one side of her face. "Didn't need to know that, Yamino."

He smirked, taking the clipboard as they walked to the next house. "Oh, and I suppose yours are?"

"No," she said quickly, and he raised an eyebrow at the defensive tone.

"Perfect little Anzu Mazaki is a slut, then?"

"To hell with you!" she cried. "So I've kissed boys, that's doesn't make me a slut! I mean, unlike some people, I don't just jump anything with a pulse."

"I know it's hard for you to believe, but neither do I," he snapped, pausing at the bottom of the porch steps to scowl at her. "If I did, that fan club would know a hell of a lot more about me."

"I'm amazed they don't already!. But then, I suppose your standards are too high for us common girls, aren't they?" she sneered. "Only like pretty little blonde things that giggle when you treat them bad?"

"What's your problem, Mazaki?" he demanded, clenching his fists around the clipboard. "How is it that you've been treating me like dirt since the day we met, but somehow I'm the bad guy?"

"Oh, don't skew the facts," she snapped. "I remember what you were like when we were younger; you were always a jerk. You can't fool me into thinking you're some kind of nice guy."

"I was trying to make conversation!" he cried, and she gaped at him, spreading her hands in disbelief.

"You call insulting people conversation?"

"What?"

"You called me a slut!"

"What!" he cried, gaping at her. "It was a joke!"

"The hell it was, I know you better than that," she said, turning to the side and glaring at him over her shoulder. Neither of them even noticed the door open and a girl poke her head out the door, concerned over the noise. "Oh, sure, you act nice, and like you're just joking around, but when it comes down to it, you mean every little insulting thing you say."

"When the hell have I ever acted nice to anybody?" he demanded, then inwardly twitched as he realised what he'd said. He scowled at his thoughts and poked his finger into her face. "Don't go blaming my faults for your problems!"

"I'm not the one in the wrong, here!"

"Well, it sure as hell isn't my fault you're a bitch!" he shouted, and she growled, her shoulders rising as she turned back to face him.

"It doesn't even matter to you, does it?" she snarled. "You don't even care about what you did!"

"You don't know anything about me," he snapped.

"And you don't know what's –" she began, but cut herself off with a raised hand and turned on her heel. "I don't care what you tell yourself happened, I know what actually did. So you just go to hell, alright?"

"Not when you're already headed there," he shot back, but she just tutted and marched off, leaving him alone with the clipboard. He glared after her, then turned back to the cabin, flinching when he noticed the girl watching him worriedly.

"Uh… good morning?" she offered, and he snarled before turning away to stalk off.

* * *

"You know, Yamino-kun, pissing off one of Yuugi's best friends might not have been the wisest thing you could've done…"

Atemu ignored him, poking at his breakfast as he gazed off into the distance. Otogi looked at him worriedly, then leaned forward to try and catch his gaze. "Not to say you've ruined your only chance, but… you haven't exactly helped your situation."

He remained silent and thoughtful, and Otogi hesitated, then cautiously followed his gaze across the restaurant to where Ryou Bakura was sitting in his partner's loose hold. Sitting next to them was Anzu, who was laughing as she talked to Jounouchi.

Otogi blinked. "Actually, she doesn't look that upset, does she?"

"I have to find out…"

"Huh?"

Atemu raised his chopsticks to point at Ryou. "He knows something. And she knows something, too, or she wouldn't have brought up what I did."

"How do you figure?" he asked blankly, and Atemu frowned.

"It's been almost four years, and I've done a lot more to piss Mazaki off in that time. There has to be a reason she brought up what I did to Yuugi."

"You did call her a slut."

He shook his head. "She's been called worse."

"Look, Yamino-kun, not everything has meaning. She was probably trying to think of the worst thing you've done, and that won out," he suggested. "Why don't we leave it for a while? Let's go check out the beach, it probably looks ten times better in the daylight."

"Yeah…" he said vaguely, then immediately put down his chopsticks at a movement beside Jounouchi's shoulder. Yuugi was standing up. Atemu did too, creeping around Otogi's shoulders so he didn't attract attention. "If they move, go and talk to them."

"Yamino-kun –"

"I'll be back in a few minutes," he promised, staying slightly crouched as he wove his way through the tables, watching Yuugi carefully as he finished talking to his friends and started toward the door. He hurried after, ignoring the strange looks he was getting, but paused at the door to make sure Yuugi had officially turned the corner to go back to the cabins. The way the resort was set up, every path around the main building led to the cabins, but two went directly. One went through the outer buildings to the courtyard, and the other, a longer path, went past the gate to the beach. Atemu took off at a run down the second, confident he could still beat Yuugi to the courtyard.

Sure enough, he managed to skid to a halt behind his own cabin just as Yuugi emerged on the other side. He leaned on the wall, panting as he watched Yuugi pull a key from his pocket and head to the fourth cabin along the row. He glanced around, checking the scattered crowd still ambling out for breakfast, then sprinted down to the laneway between the first and second rows, dodging people as he headed for Yuugi's cabin.

He was just putting the key in the lock when Atemu dashed around the corner, catching the porch railing to keep himself from overshooting the mark. Yuugi flinched and spun around, then blinked as Atemu gulped down a breath and leaned on the railing for support, struggling to look nonchalant.

"Morning," he greeted, inwardly wincing at how high lack of air had made his voice. He wasn't much of a sprinter.

Yuugi continued to blink at him. "Yamino-kun? You okay?"

He tried to smile, then grimaced and held up one finger as he gulped down another couple of breaths. After a moment he looked up again, his breathing back to normal, and smiled. "Fine. How are you?"

"Going to brush my teeth," he said slowly, still staring at him worriedly. "Was there something you wanted?"

"Oh… nothing much. Just… saw you out here and thought I'd say hi," he said, and Yuugi blinked again, glancing around to try and see where he could have possibly been. Atemu grimaced, but Yuugi had never been anything if not naïve, and so just looked back at him curiously.

"You seem a little… flustered."

"Really? I'm not," he said, swallowing a dry lump at the back of his mouth. "But since I've got you here, I was wondering if we could maybe talk."

"Talk?"

"Yeah. Not right now, of course, I mean… you have to brush your teeth and I have…" He rolled his wrist in silent continuation of the sentence, certain he was failing at his nonchalance. "But – funny thing. Otogi is my… friend. And I found out that he's a good friend of yours, and that got me thinking about you. So, if you want, we could talk sometime, maybe?"

Yuugi didn't answer for a moment, just continued blinking at him. "You… want to… talk to me?"

"That's what I was thinking."

"Me," he repeated clearly, and Atemu nodded.

"You, Yuugi."

Yuugi stopped blinking for the moment, and turned his head to the side, looking at him from the corner of his eye. "Why?"

If he had been anyone else, Atemu knew, he would have stuttered. But the noise he made was quite clearly not a stutter, because it wasn't quite a word. He settled on an uncomfortable grunt, and hunched his shoulders a little more as he leaned forward. "Call it a need."

"A need."

"When did you pick up this habit of repeating everything people say?" he snapped, and Yuugi pulled back, hurt. Atemu grimaced, inwardly punching himself. "Yuugi, I just want to talk. It's okay if it's not right now, I understand. But… we do need to talk. Alone. And that's hard with your friends threatening to beat me up." he added pointedly, and Yuugi frowned.

"My friends doing what?"

He waved it off, smiling slightly. It would figure Yuugi knew nothing about it. "I'm just… putting it out there. I want to talk, but it's completely up to you. I'm in cabin six-A, right over there," he said, pointing. Yuugi's eyes automatically followed, only to snap back to him as soon as Atemu lowered his hand. "It's up to you. Okay?"

"O- okay," he said quietly, then turned back to the door, still watching him blankly. "I'm going to go brush my teeth now."

Atemu nodded, pushing off the railing to step back. The conversation had gone a thousand times better than he'd thought it would, but he wasn't going to push his luck. "I'll see you on the beach then," he said, and Yuugi turned away to focus on his key, leaving Atemu to walk away with his dignity well intact. He gritted his teeth as he did, but still clenched his eyes shut in ecstatic victory.

It wasn't a date, or forgiveness, or even an agreement, but it wasn't a shouting match either. And he would take anything he could get.

* * *

The beach had beautiful yellow sand, stretching from a huge dock with dozens of small fishing boats to a rocky headland covered in perfect green grass. Despite the cool breeze from the early morning, the heat and humidity had quickly risen until all anyone wanted to do was strip down to their swimsuits and dive into the water. It may not have been pristine, but it was clear enough to see the sand below, and there were no major drop offs until you went near the headland, so it was perfect for playing in.

It was a fantastic vacation spot.

Jounouchi and Honda had found a bunch of sand toys in Honda's cabin, and were using them to dig a hole ("_you've gotta have a hole at the beach!"_), while Anzu stretched out on a towel to sunbake and Ryou and Bakura searched the shoreline for a place the group could call their own for the week.

Yuugi, however, was having trouble enjoying himself. Sitting beside Anzu, his knees up to his chest as he stared out at the water, he found his thoughts drifting in a depressing circle he couldn't get himself out of.

This was really bad and getting worse.

Walking into class first semester this year, he had come face-to-face with Atemu Yamino. He'd thought his heart would stop, and it was only his friends that kept him from requesting a class transfer right then and there. Then, just a few weeks ago, Atemu had suddenly appeared in the game shop for no reason. And the way he touched Yuugi's hand…

He pulled it up to his chest, curling the other hand around it protectively. He could still feel those cool fingers sliding over his skin.

And then there was the festival, and what Atemu had said… and now he wanted to talk?

Yuugi hunched further over his knees, nervously chewing his lip.

He didn't want Atemu—_Yamino_—as a friend. He didn't need him. He didn't even want to know him. He had good friends now. Friends that had stuck by him through crazy bombers and kidnappings and fire and even the everyday friendship stuff. Yamino had walked out on him for no reason whatsoever. His friends wouldn't do that. He didn't want Yamino as a friend.

His hand had unconsciously risen to his mouth, and he absently nibbled on the scarred skin of his knuckle.

Yuugi didn't want to talk to Yamino; he didn't want to see him, didn't want to hang out with him, didn't want anything to do with him.

But every time the teachers called Yamino's name in class; every time he heard that gravelled voice at recess; every time he looked around and saw crimson eyes staring back at him… every time he thought about what Atemu had said at the festival… and that soft smile that had only ever been for Yuugi alone…

He shook his head hard, forcing himself to look back over the ocean.

He did not want Atemu Yamino in his life.

He didn't.

* * *

_**Bit of a fic for you, some nice reviews for me?**_


	4. Hangover

Chapter Four – **_Hangover_**

**DISCLAIMER**: A horse walked into a bar and asked for a beer; the bartender came over, and he just had to ask, "Why the long face?"

* * *

"Why do first kisses always have to be so awkward?"

Jounouchi and Yuugi exchanged glances, but remained silent. Ryou was lying over a small boulder, peering between two bushes as they tried to get a clear shot of some nameless up-and-coming couple. Yuugi was leaning over Ryou's shoulders, holding the right bush back, while Jounouchi leant over Yuugi, keeping both his best friend's hair and the left bush out of the way. They couldn't really afford to startle their photographer, because they could very well end up calling attention to themselves and get beat up for spying.

In two and a half days, Ryou had taken more photographs than Jounouchi had in a lifetime, but he kept assuring them he hadn't taken even a quarter of the images he had in mind. The image of the romantic couple was one Ryou was set on, and they had spent the better part of their morning trying to find one.

"I mean, after the first few, you don't even care anymore," Ryou continued quietly, fiddling with the buttons to get the right light and focus. "But that first kiss is always so hard. Everyone goes through it, and it takes so much effort. It's more emotionally draining than pretty much any other or any _part of _any relationship you're ever going to have."

Yuugi looked up at Jounouchi again, who grimaced painfully. Compared to Ryou, who may as well have been married with two cats to make up for the kids he'd never have, they were both complete losses in the love department. While he'd been relatively successful in middle school, Jounouchi had only really paid any attention to one girl in the last two years – and not only was she a good eight years older than him, she was missing in action somewhere overseas. Yuugi just preferred not to talk about it at all – he found his lack of experience depressing.

"It must be because it's one of those things you can't learn without trying," Ryou continued thoughtfully, frowning at the image of his shot. "But you want to be good. And when you get to our age, it's expected that you know how, so for those people that haven't kissed anyone yet, it just gets harder."

Yuugi let out a silent breath, while Jounouchi's was much harder and more irritable. Ryou didn't seem to notice, clicking his first picture.

"So you get more and more nervous, and more pressure gets put on you to kiss, but you can't, because it's getting more nerve racking," He shook his head pityingly. "I'm glad Bakura got me at sixteen. Wish he hadn't done it in the middle of the track field, though. That was my first detention ever. Two firsts at once – my father was horrified."

Yuugi managed to keep himself from slapping his forehead by focussing on the blushing couple beyond the bushes. They were both giggling and skirting glances at each other, their hands just touching at the fingertips. The girl kept looking at the boy hopefully, only to blush a darker shade of red and look away whenever he tried to meet her gaze.

"Hurry up, she's waiting for you! Girls can't do it!" hissed Jounouchi, and Yuugi bit back a laugh. The sooner they got this shot, the quicker Ryou would let them go play water frisbee with the others. But his urging was still kinda funny.

They all leaned forward as the boy suddenly stammered out the girl's name, and she looked at him, stars practically sparkling in her eyes. Yuugi's cheek twitched when he realised he was playing mental violins in his head, but the scene carried on even when he forced them to stop. The couple kept inching closer, and Ryou's camera kept clicking, and Jounouchi's grip on Yuugi's hair was getting tighter as he breathlessly cheered the guy on.

And there it was. Suddenly there was no space between their lips, and Jounouchi accidentally yanked Yuugi's hair in triumph. Watching the couple, Yuugi tilted his head and wondered whether the guy was doing it well, but apparently Ryou didn't care, because it sounded like he was clicking at four shots a second.

Jounouchi pulled away, and Yuugi followed, both of them taking Ryou's arms and pulling him up to his feet before he could take too many. The bushes sprang back into place, and Jounouchi clapped his hands together, not bothering to keep his voice down any more. "Right! So, Yuugi, here's my plan. We dump Ryou and his camera with Honda's laptop so he can relive every boring second of this morning—"

"It wasn't boring!"

"—and you and me go meet up with Honda and Anzu, and we get our game on with water frisbee."

Yuugi nodded, hiding his grin at Ryou's frown behind his hand. "Mm! And after that, how about we play Duel Monsters? I was talking to Anzu, and she said she brought her deck with her! I haven't played with Anzu in months!"

"She still got that mutant zombie deck?"

"Nah, she only plays that when she wants to use solid vision holograms," he said, chuckling. "It's her usual sorceress deck."

"Then yeah, sure!" Jounouchi clapped his hands again and motioned for them to start back through the trees to the beach track. "It ticks me off when she uses that deck. She built it just to freak me out, so she can beat me."

"I don't know if anyone needs to build a deck specifically for that, Jounouch-kun," drawled a new voice, and the three boys all stopped, staring at the trees in front of them in surprise. After a moment, Otogi stepped out, Atemu trailing a metre behind. He smirked at Jounouchi. "Beating you in Duel Monsters isn't exactly what I'd call a challenge."

"Otogi, you jerk!" shouted Jounouchi, his good mood gone as he flailed a pointing finger in Otogi's face. "What d'you know, you barely even play!"

"But I've seen you play Yuugi-kun dozens of times," he said smoothly. "And how many times have I seen you win…?"

"That's different! Yuugi's the best duellist there is!"

"I don't know about that," Otogi said, glancing back at Atemu. "He's never been in any tournaments – he gave you his ticket to Duellist Kingdom, didn't he? And he didn't enter Battle City, or any of the nationals."

"Like that means anything!" he snapped, but Otogi just hummed, twisting a lock of hair around his finger.

"I'm not saying he's not great – Yuugi-kun's an amazing Duellist, and he has beat Kaiba-kun. But _aside _from Kaiba-kun, he's never duelled a tournament player," he said, then shrugged and turned to Yuugi. "But that's neither here nor there. How are you, Yuugi-kun? Ryou-kun?"

Yuugi smiled and nodded, forcing himself to focus on Otogi. "Great! We're just going to go play water frisbee!"

"Is that where the others are?"

"Mm! You can join us if you like."

He hesitated, his smile widening until he looked over his shoulder. Atemu's expression tightened slightly and Otogi sighed, turning back to Yuugi. "Maybe later."

Ryou nudged Yuugi, raising his eyebrows meaningfully, and the smaller boy gasped. "Oh yeah! Otogi-kun, I need to ask you a favour!"

"A favour?"

"Mm! See, we're the photography team for this trip, and we're supposed to have at least one picture of everyone here. Only, we don't know how that's gonna work, because generally most of the people try to avoid us, and we can't see how a camera's going to help that," he explained, and Otogi cringed in sympathetic understanding. Yuugi shrugged, rolling his eyes to dismiss their social status. "The thing is, you know pretty much everyone in the year, and most of them listen to you. So we were wondering if you could maybe help us…?"

He trailed off, and Otogi grinned, catching the drift. He nodded, opening his mouth to answer, then stopped and looked over his shoulder again. Atemu raised an eyebrow, and Otogi's grin darkened to an evil smirk. "Why, yes, Yuugi-kun, I think I could do that."

The others all blinked and stared at his tone, but Otogi just spun back to focus on Ryou. "You're taking most of the photos, aren't you, Ryou-kun?"

He blinked again, surprised. "Well, yes, but –"

"Okay! How about you and me go talk about who you want doing what?" he suggested, stepping between Yuugi and Ryou to sling his arm around Ryou's shoulders. "We've gotta plan this right, or we'll just have a bunch of pictures with people doing peace signs and grinning like Jounouch-kun."

"Like –" he began to repeat, but was cut off by Jounouchi's objecting squawk. Otogi laughed and quickly pushed Ryou forward, past Atemu and into the trees, and Jounouchi leapt after, demanding apologies and rephrasement. Atemu twisted around to stare after them, and Yuugi sighed, recognising the ploy.

Over the last twenty-four hours, Yuugi had finally decided on a reason for Atemu suddenly talking to him again, and then a plan as to what he would do about it. With his close-knit group of friends, Yuugi hadn't really thought much about who he would no longer be seeing after high school, and even if he had, he wouldn't have had any major regrets over it. But the fact was, this was their final year of high school – after this, he would never have to see Atemu, outside the unlikely possibility of meeting him on the street. That was just fine with Yuugi, but no matter which way you looked at it, Atemu had handled their 'break-up' badly. Yuugi could guess how leaving school without clearing the air would be cause for guilt, and Atemu had never been good with guilt. So Yuugi just had to be okay with everything—_which he was_—and they could leave it at that.

"So, Yamino-kun—" Yuugi waited while Atemu flinched and spun back to face him, his eyes widening as if he hadn't noticed they were alone together. "I guess we'll be having that talk you wanted."

"Uh –" He stopped, then pointed over his shoulder and shook his head, his jaw working as if to say something. He didn't manage to deny Otogi's involvement, but instead finished with a nod and continued, "Look, Yuugi, before we get into it, I want to apologise. I never meant for any of this to happen."

Yuugi frowned, wondering how that wasn't getting into it right there, but shrugged and started walking into the trees after the others, back to the path. Atemu turned to walk alongside him, and Yuugi took an unconscious step sideways so they were almost a metre apart.

"I know it doesn't make it better, but believe me when I say that if I could go back, it wouldn't have happened the way it did," Atemu continued quietly, keeping his eyes on the path ahead. "I would never have done it at all."

"Why not?" he asked, glancing at him, and Atemu grimaced.

"Because I –"

"Yamino-kun, you did what you did, and you did it for a reason," he said gently, then rolled his eyes off to the side and let his head follow, so he could avoid the sight of Atemu refusing to look at him. "I've thought it over a thousand times, and I can't figure out what I did that annoyed you so much. I wouldn't have done anything differently in our entire relationship. So whatever it was, if it bothered you so much, there was no way to save what we had."

Atemu didn't say anything for a long moment, then sighed. "You don't understand. I'm the one that screwed up, not you."

"You did what you needed to at the time," he said quietly. "That's not screwing up."

"Yuugi –"

"It's not," he said firmly, looking around at him again. He almost faltered at Atemu's pained expression, but put it down to the fact he hadn't actually forgiven him yet. He smiled, shrugging helplessly. "Look, for all we know, it might have been fate. A lot's happened for me in the last two years, and I doubt I could've done even half of it if you were there worrying about me like you used to. Everything happens for a reason, Yamino-kun, and we're all better off for it."

Atemu pursed his lips, but Yuugi continued before he could even begin.

"What I'm trying to say is that there's no problem," he said, forcing as bright a smile as he could manage. "You and me are fine. You don't have to feel bad, or try and be friends. You did what you had to, and it worked out best for both of us, right?"

Atemu stopped walking, and Yuugi paused, turning to look at him. They just stared at each other for a moment, before Atemu sighed again and set a hand on his hip. "You don't want to be friends, then?"

"I'm fine with things as they are," he said, and prayed he had just imagined the strangely high pitch of his voice.

"What if –" Atemu stopped, lowering his head for a moment in thought, then met Yuugi's gaze with steady eyes. "What if I said I'm not?"

"I wouldn't believe you."

His expression didn't even flicker, but Atemu did blink, and if Yuugi had still known him like he used to, he would have said hurt, shock and pain all flashed through his eyes. But Yuugi didn't know him, so he put it down to the shifting shadows that were filtering through the trees around them.

"It's been four years, Yamino-kun," he said softly. "If you really weren't okay with how things turned out, you would have done something by now."

Atemu continued watching him silently for several seconds, then shifted his eyes off to the side, clearly avoiding his gaze. "I guess," he agreed quietly, and Yuugi nodded.

"So it's okay," he said, turning away again. "It's all done now."

He began walking back to the path, and didn't look back. He told himself he imagined the sound of a fist punching a tree trunk, and the whispered swear of depressed anger.

* * *

The beach really was a good place to spend summer vacation. Not that Otogi thought Atemu needed darker skin, but they had stretched out on the beach to tan, and Atemu could feel his hurt over this morning's failure seeping away.

He had expected it, after all. In fact, he had actually expected much worse – just because Yuugi had no intention of ever being friends with him again, that didn't mean they hadn't had an extremely civil conversation. Atemu could work with civil.

He was still contemplating that point when his sun was suddenly blocked by a shadow looming over him. He opened one eye, then lifted his sunglasses and opened the other, staring at Ryou Bakura's upside down head. "You…?"

"Good afternoon," he said politely, then smiled. "Pose!"

Atemu had time to blink before he suddenly found himself on the receiving end of flash photography, and had to blink again to rid his eyes of exploding stars. He groaned, and Otogi sat up with a laugh.

"Ryou-kun! What are you doing over here?"

"Well, Anzu-chan confiscated the school camera from me when I took pictures of her taking her dress off," he said, kneeling down at the head of Atemu's towel, his camera cradled in his lap. "She had her bikini on underneath, but apparently that didn't matter. Since Yuugi-kun and the others were all upset when she deleted the images, I'm inclined to believe her. But that leaves me with nothing to do for the afternoon."

"What camera's that, then?" Atemu asked irritably, still clenching his eyes to disperse the flash stars.

"Mine. Monologue, see?" he said, showing off the old-fashioned model.

Otogi frowned, leaning back on his hand as he looked at Ryou appraisingly. "You have nothing to do this afternoon? Where's Bakura-kun?"

"No idea," he said blankly. "I haven't seen him all day. I have a feeling he's exploring the town. Or he could just be sleeping. He doesn't like sunlight in the summer break."

The other two exchanged glances, and Ryou shrugged. "So anyway, I thought I would ask you if you've talked to anyone about the photos, yet. We were hoping to get most of this done tomorrow night."

"I talked to a few people," Otogi said slowly, before he twisted around on his towel to sit cross-legged, facing Ryou. "The girls all want to be in the year book, so they're all happy to 'annoy you'. But guys are guys, and they think posing is stupid. So although they'll probably demand photos during the main events, you're probably most likely to get them in candid moments," he finished, gesturing down the beach to a group of boys that were wrestling in the surf.

"I see," said Ryou, but he put a hand to his mouth in concern. "I suppose that's good news."

"Oh, well, there's still a bunch of people I haven't talked to," Otogi continued reassuringly. "I was going to get Yamino-kun to come around with me later today, and you should too – three pretty-boys get better results than an earth-bound god and a scowling prick."

"Screw you too," Atemu said lazily, and Ryou laughed.

"That sounds wonderful," he said happily. "The others are all duelling, and I'm not much for card games. This gives me a good reason not to join them!"

Atemu raised his eyebrows, then looked around at Otogi in surprise. Otogi had said Ryou was essentially Yuugi's confidant, so it didn't really make sense for Ryou to want to spend time with him. Atemu rolled onto his stomach as Otogi began outlining his plan for the afternoon, and set his chin in his hand to better appraise Ryou's look. There were three possible reasons for Ryou to have agreed to spend time with him: one, he didn't know Atemu's past with Yuugi; two, this was a ploy to manipulate Bakura into killing Atemu, most likely masterminded by Anzu; or three, Ryou was playing bodyguard in his own way – sizing Atemu up as a potential threat.

It was this third one that seemed most likely, and which was also the most attractive. Ryou glanced at him and closed his eyes in a smile, and Atemu tilted his head back in consideration. Ryou smiled the same way Yuugi did – he hid thousands of thoughts and meanings behind a soft look.

The thought didn't surprise him, much. Anyone whose private life was as impossibly public as Ryou had to either fit a mould crafted for him by public opinion, or not care about public opinion. Ryou was the perfect stereotyped uke in class, but in reality, Atemu realised, he was probably a very different person.

He was still contemplating this by the time they had pulled on shirts and begun walking around in search of people to trick into wanting photographs. It was becoming obvious that Ryou was intelligent and fairly deep, but, in all honesty, a bit of a ditz.

"You're a lot different than I thought you'd be," Atemu commented, after Ryou had finished a five minute discussion on the difference between store bought and home-made apple and spice muffins. Otogi had already split off to talk to one of his fangirls about getting her photo in the year book, so Ryou was alone as he blushed and ducked his head.

"Really?" he asked. "What did you think I was like?"

"Much more concerned with your weight," he said, and Ryou laughed. Atemu tilted his head back to look at him from lowered eyelids. "You always seem a lot more pathetic, too."

Ryou paused, obviously weighing that as an insult, then shrugged. "I probably am. Honda-kun always says I'm a lot more confident when I'm with Bakura, and you're a lot like him."

"What."

"Mm… I think you are," he said, and continued before Atemu could even get his first objection out. "You're loners. Not in the bad sense, of course, so much as… I've never seen you actively go over and talk to anyone. People always have to come to you, and even then, you don't talk much."

Atemu frowned, watching him cautiously, but Ryou was the picture of innocence as he turned to look at him.

"Otogi-kun's the only person I've seen you have a full conversation with," he said quietly. "Bakura used to be like that, before we got together. Now, because he spends time with me, and I'm always with the others, he talks a fair bit. I think he just needed the right person to help him get his words out."

"Well, I guess I just don't have a – what does he call you? Rabbit? To get my words out," he said irritably, unconsciously folding his arms over his chest.

Ryou just smiled. "No… you don't, do you?"

Atemu shifted his weight to the other foot, leaning back and away, and when Ryou continued to give him that look, altogether too knowing, Atemu pushed past him to join Otogi in talking to the girl.

Terrifying as fangirls were, right now Ryou seemed a hell of a lot worse.

* * *

It was almost dinner by the time Ryou left the others to go back to his friends. A quick check informed him Bakura was still missing in action and that Anzu had gone to her own cabin to change into something warmer than a swimsuit. He waved off Honda's offer to help him find Bakura and set out for the girls' cabin instead.

Miho let him in on her way out, and said Anzu was in the second bedroom. He knocked as he was opening the door, but didn't announce himself, so he really only had himself to blame when Anzu noticed he was male and screamed.

She was still changing – not naked, of course, but still in her underwear, and she ducked behind the cupboard door until she realised who it was. "Dammit, Ryou, you could have told me it was you!" she cried, but there was no real anger behind it.

Last year, Ryou knew, he would have blushed and run back out, probably screaming himself. But the older he got, the less he cared about women at all, and Anzu knew that. She was comfortable changing in front of him, because while he had no sense of style, Ryou was still gay enough to hold down a deep and meaningful conversation with a half-naked girl in front of him.

"I gave the school camera back to Yuugi a few hours ago," she said, heading over to the drawers to pick out an outfit. "Where have you been all afternoon, anyway?"

"I was with Otogi-kun. He, Yamino-kun and I went around asking people to help us out with the photographs. He's really very good at making people do what he wants," he said, and sat down on the end of one of the beds. He waited until she had set out one of her girlier outfits on the bed before continuing, "I'd never really talked to Yamino-kun before. I only really knew him from school gossip."

She glanced at him, but didn't say anything, just picked up her skirt and began wrapping it around her waist.

"Ne, Anzu-chan… I know he did something to you and Yuugi-kun, but… what was it, exactly?" he asked. "Yuugi-kun is Yuugi-kun, but still… you seem to hate Yamino-kun a lot more than he does."

"Yuugi forgave Kaiba for practically kidnapping him for a week and half over a piece of cardboard," Anzu said quietly. "He doesn't know how to be angry at someone."

Ryou tilted his head, and Anzu lowered hers, focussing on her skirt tie. When it was done and she couldn't possibly spend any longer straightening it, she turned away to fiddle with her shirt, still lying on the bed. "I met Yuugi and Yamino in year five. They were completely inseperable," she said softly. "Even when they had different classes, year after year, they would always spend as much time together as they could. Yamino would always come to Yuugi's class in breaks, and they would go to one another's house after school and for weekends. And even if Yuugi ever wanted to do something else—hang out with someone else—Yamino would find a reason to come along, or make up an excuse for Yuugi not to go."

"Sounds like Bakura with me," Ryou commented, and Anzu's hands stilled their fidgeting for a moment, before she suddenly grabbed up her shirt and started pulling it on.

"Back then, Yuugi was a completely different person. He was…" She cut herself off, then turned around to face him as she did up the buttons on her shirt. "I didn't like Yamino because he was a possessive freak. And then he just suddenly abandoned Yuugi for absolutely no reason, and it broke Yuugi completely. I think those are some pretty good reasons to think Yamino's a bastard, don't you?"

"Maybe," he said quietly. "But you have to remember, I'm in love with Bakura, of all people."

Her shoulders slumped, but she smiled and nodded anyway. "You do have a kinda skewed perspective on people."

"Mm…" He looked away for a moment, thinking, then looked back as she sat down to begin pulling on some loose socks. "Have you ever talked to him about it?"

"Yuugi? Of course I have."

"I meant Yamino-kun."

She paused, then looked up at him with a frown. "Why would I talk to Yamino?"

He shrugged and stood up again, letting his hands hang loose by his sides as he started toward the door. "I don't know. It's just a thought."

She could only stare as he opened the door and left, leaving her to blink and wonder exactly what he knew that she didn't. She pulled her knees up to her chest, resting her heels on the edge of the bed, and laced her fingers around her ankles.

Unlike Honda, who was blunt, or Yuugi and Jounouchi, who made insightful and intelligent comments without ever meaning to, Ryou had a habit of making cryptic comments that were actually suggesting something very deep and occasionally life-changing. 'Talk to Yamino' was much more blatant than he usually went for, so clearly he knew something about Yamino that the others hadn't picked up on yet.

It would fit. Yamino had made a sudden reentrance in their lives this year, and the past month, he had moved into the forefront, rather than the outskirts of their attention. Jounouchi and Honda had admitted to having words with him, and Ryou was as protective as the rest of them, though more subtle about it. It fit for him to have done a little research. Maybe he had learnt why Yamino had done what he did… or Ryou could have found out some huge secret that would ruin Atemu's life, if put in the right hands. He could be spiteful that way.

"Talk to Atemu Yamino, huh…?"

* * *

A few days in, Atemu had adjusted to his early-morning roll call duties. After their fight, Anzu had convinced Miho to pair with her, and so Atemu had been free of her presence. Otogi wasn't quite as fit as Anzu, meaning Atemu now did all the jumping to look into windows, but the peace was worth the extra work. He had even started to like it a little. No one else ever got up before eight, so they were always first to breakfast, and it was taking increasingly longer periods of time for people to get to the beach, meaning Atemu could go for a swim in the freezing ocean without anyone staring at him.

He had just finished this exercise and was letting the sun reheat his skin when his peace was suddenly interuppted. A towel flapped through the air, and then settled on the sand alongside his own. He stared at it, and then his eyes sharpened into a glare as none other than Anzu Mazaki sat down.

"What –"

"You know what your problem is, Yamino? You're a scumbag, that's one problem," she informed him loudly, and he clenched his jaw, turning back to look out over the ocean. Anzu followed his gaze, but continued talking. "I always knew you were a scumbag. I told everyone that would listen that you were a complete jerk, but no one ever listened to me. At first, I thought it was because everyone liked Yuugi, and you were like an extension of him, but even now! No one ever believes me."

She paused for a moment, but when Atemu opened his mouth to retort, she jumped back in. "When I first met you, I have to admit, I was really hoping you'd pull my hair. You were all dark and exotic, and a complete jerkoff. And for some reason, we girls like jerks; especially good looking jerks. And I was young and stupid. Luckily, we were nine and you hated girls, so I don't have to subject myself to any bad memories of girlhood romances with you," she said, and Atemu scoffed. She ignored him, leaning back on her hands. "Even better, the next year I met Yuugi, and he was wonderful. Little Yuugi was so amazing, do you remember? He was sweet, kind, smart, charming, cute… my mother even liked him. Do you remember that? In first year middle school, every girl in the entire school either had a crush on him, or wanted to take him home to add to their plush toy collection. He was just so… so… ethereal. Wait, no, that's not the right word. He was… he was too good to be true. It was like he was some kind of creature given to middle school girls to fulfill their wildest manga fantasies. There was just one problem. You remember what that problem was, Yamino?"

He pursed his lips, absently wondering if he could bury her face down in the sand without anyone coming along before she suffocated. Of course he remembered all of that. When they were younger, it had been Yuugi that was the popular one – he had been smart and fun and so charming that everyone—be they female, male, underclassman, upperclassman, teacher, whatever—had loved him. It had been damn hard to keep his position as Yuugi's best friend. He had never been able to understand how Yuugi became a social outcast in only three years.

"You were the problem, Yamino. Everytime anyone so much as blinked at Yuugi, you scared them off. You glared, said mean things, got into fights with people… remember Yorikio-kun? You kicked a soccerball at three different and _very _sensitive parts of his body, just for partnering with Yuugi in science. Remember that?"

He felt his mouth pull off to the side, and lowered his head to cover the slight shame he knew had to be spreading across his face. At the time, Atemu had been paranoid someone would replace him, because he and Yuugi had been put in different classes for the first time since year four. So when Yorikio had started getting close to Yuugi, Atemu had decided to give the jerk a warning. Yuugi was _his_ best friend and no one else's. The warning just happened to take the form of a soccerball to the eye. And stomach. And groin…

"You were a possessive freak, Yamino," Anzu continued snappishly. "You wouldn't let Yuugi have any friends. And anyone you couldn't get rid of, you made life miserable for. Yuugi liked me, and I wasn't afraid of you. That's why you always hated me, because I wouldn't leave Yuugi alone."

And the fact Yuugi had a crush on her hadn't helped, he thought grimly.

"And! _And_!" she cried, still staring across the water and refusing to look at him. "And I really liked Yuugi. I wanted to ask him out. First year of middle school, I told myself I would. But you were always there! You were always there changing the subject or making excuses for either Yuugi or me to be somewhere else! But I knew it wouldn't last forever! I knew that, eventually, you would drop your guard for a second and I'd get Yuugi on a date, just the two of us. I knew he'd say yes. I was almost certain he had a crush on me, and I found out for sure last year!"

At those words, Atemu was sure he felt his very bones knit together. There were definite possibilities in that sentence, and he couldn't take being told even one of them from Anzu. He slowly turned his head to look at her, but she was downright glaring now; scowling at the gentle waves rolling over the ocean.

"But then! Ohh, but then… Then you just had to go screw everything up, didn't you. You just had to go all bi-polar and just up and leave with no reason whatsoever! You ruined everything, and you didn't even have the decency to have a good explanation!" she cried, and he stared at her, but didn't have time to comment before she was ranting again. "You destroy our entire lives in the space of a week, then just disappear for almost four years, then suddenly show up in our class in the final year of high school and start screwing with us all over again! You've got no sense of decency, or shame, or even damn timing! You just love ruining everything for everyone and – and I will not let you hurt him, _you understand me_?"

He continued gaping at her for a moment – or as close as he ever came to a gape. In truth, his lips were only slightly parted, his eyes only a fraction wider than normal. He blinked once, then twice more, before finding his voice to say, "What the hell are you on about, Mazaki?"

"Yuugi, you braindead moron!" she shouted, twisting around to stare back at him. "You arrogant son of a bitch, you don't even know what you did, do you! You're so obsessed with screwing everything up now that you don't know you already did it!"

"What?"

"You weren't even listening, were you? Don't you remember what Yuugi used to be like before you screwed him up? He was nice, and kind, and sweet –"

"He's still those things," he said blankly, and she threw up her hands in exasperation.

"Well, yes, but no one knows that, do they? They just think he's a pathetic little geeky coward that barely knows how to string a sentence together without referring to a game!" she cried, and Atemu looked off to the side, noticing a small group of their classmates walking down the path from the resort stop to stare at them.

He lowered his voice, hoping it would cause the same range in decibels from Anzu. "And what do I have to do with that?"

It didn't work. "You arrogant _jerk_! You just up and left him for no reason whatsoever! You did a complete turn around over what sounded like one night! You went from acting like he was the only thing in your life that mattered to treating him like he was less than dirt! And you don't think that's going to screw him up a little?" She almost shrieked, causing a few more people to pause their trek down to the beach, but her words had had the opposite effect on Atemu. He turned his head away, pulling his knees up so he could rest his elbows on them. Anzu climbed up to her own knees, fists clenched as she glared. "He thought he'd done something wrong! But he couldn't think of anything he'd done wrong, so of course he thought you must have had a problem with who he was! He thought you were sick of his jokes, or his attitude, or something, because you just glared at him all the more, no matter what he tried to do! He stopped cracking jokes because of you, you bastard!"

He narrowed his eyes, tightening his grip on his hands, but didn't look at her. If he didn't look at her, he might be able to imagine she wasn't saying all this. The others hadn't been there – they didn't know what they were talking about when they accused him of hurting Yuugi. But Anzu had. Anzu had seen the before and after images. She had probably been there for the fallout.

"He started thinking he was worthless because of you! He barely talks anymore, and it's all because you just suddenly started hating him for no reason!" she yelled, only barely restraining herself from jabbing him with a pointed and condemning finger. "You _ruined _him! He turned into this pathetic little…! I swear, he grew down about four years, as if acting like someone you _had_ liked would make people like him. I couldn't stand the person he turned into. He's only started recovering this past year or so, since Jounouchi started hanging around, and I still haven't gotten him back! I'm probably never going to have him back; all because you had to go all ice-king and start hating him all of a sudden!"

"I didn't hate him," he muttered, still glaring off to the side.

"Well it sure as hell seemed like you did!" she cried. "And don't expect me to believe you didn't try and mess with him at the festival – I know you did something!"

"I just tried to talk to him," he said through gritted teeth.

"About what? Don't play cute with me, Yamino, we both know it won't work," she snapped. "If you think you're going to get away with this, you'd better have a damn good explanation that goes right back to age fourteen, cause there ain't no way you're getting out of this clean!"

He rolled his eyes, but unfortunately caught sight of her in the process. It was almost amusing how she managed to look so threatening while wearing such a revealing bikini. He hesitated, then sighed and looked away again. "What do you care? It wouldn't make a difference, would it?"

"Not unless it's a good one!"

"It's none of your business," he said irritably. "I don't have to explain myself to you."

"The hell you don't! You cost me a first love!" she cried, and he glanced at her to make sure she wasn't serious. She grimaced and set a hand on her hip. "Well, you better explain yourself. Maybe you haven't been listening, but Yuugi's got the self confidence of a glow worm, now. He doesn't listen to or spend time with anyone unless his friends like them too. And I sure don't like or trust or even want to tolerate you, right now."

He hesitated, absently sending a death glare to the small crowd the had crept closer to hear his replies to Anzu's shouting. They scattered, but most of them stayed within sight, just in case the situation got interesting. He sighed and hunched forward, gripping his fingers hard enough to hurt. "I can't tell you, Mazaki."

"Oh, that'd be right!"

"Because you'd tell everyone," he added, glaring at her. "This is between me and Yuugi."

"You just don't have an excuse that isn't 'I'm a son of a bitch'."

He felt one of the veins in his forehead begin to pulse, and his wisdom teeth were beginning to ache from his clenching them too hard. "You have nothing to bitch at me about, Mazaki. Yuugi had a crush on you back then, we all know it. It's your fault you didn't snatch him up when you had the chance."

"I couldn't ask him out because of what you did to him!"

"What a coincidence!" he cried, his patience finally snapping and causing him to slam his fists down on either side of his hips. "_I _couldn't ask him out because of what _you _did to him!"

"What are you—" She froze suddenly, her eyes widening as the words sunk in, and she stared at him blankly. "—talking about…?"

He glared at her for another moment, then scoffed and turned back to the ocean. Anzu continued blinking at him for a moment, then raised her pointing finger again in a much less ferocious movement. "When you say that, do you mean… you… _liked _Yuugi?"

He continued glaring at nothing, but apparently the slight lowering of his head was answer enough, because Anzu dropped down onto her heels in shock. "But Yuugi's a boy. And you're…" Her eyes traced his frame for a moment, before she hissed, "_You're gay_?"

Atemu still didn't answer, but his fingers began twisting into the towel beneath him.

"Now I get what Ryou noticed and the rest of us didn't," she muttered, and Atemu glared at her from the corner of his eye.

"You tell a soul and I will tie you to the bottom of a buoy," he promised darkly, then looked back out at the water. "I didn't know what was going on. I thought staying away from Yuugi would make the feelings go away."

She stared at him for several more, excruciatingly long seconds, before she was back up on her knees and loud. "You _moron_! How many movies and TV shows have there been about this? What kind of an idiot thinks that sort of thing just 'goes away'?" she demanded, and he only just caught himself from face falting.

He settled with twisting around to stare at her, incredulous. "What the hell do you know?" he cried. "You've got no idea how hard this was! This is not some cheesy TV movie, Mazaki, it's my life! And it screwed up everything in my life! Don't lecture me about what I should've thought!"

"But turning away your best friend? You know Yuugi would have understood! You know he would have helped you!" she shouted, gaping at him. "That is not an excuse, Yamino, it's just stupid!"

"You don't know what it's like!"

"Should I care? You destroyed my best friend's self-image because you were scared!"

"I was protecting him!"

"You were running away!" she shot back, and he stiffened, leaning away from her. She glared at him for a second, then huffed and flounced down to a sitting position beside him, scowling out at the water. "I bet you're trying to fix things before school ends and you never see him again, then, huh?"

He pursed his lips, his leg bouncing as he turned away in irritation. "What's it to you?"

"Well, obviously you need to talk to him again. Explain that you ruined his life because you're an idiotic coward," she snapped, and he was inexplicably reminded of their Japanese teacher, who treated them like they couldn't even read if they had trouble following poetic structures in their textbooks. He frowned at her, and she rolled her eyes. "But so help me, Yamino, if you even come close to hurting my friend again, I will tell Bakura you told Ryou-kun he'd look good in speedoes."

He stared at her again, confused not only by the threat (he had a feeling it was threatening death or dismemberment) but by her apparent green signal. "You believe me?"

"You only ever hang out with Otogi," she snapped by way of explanation. "And those clothes you wear? And Yuugi is kind of a target for it… Bakura was sure he and Ryou-kun were sneaking off to make out through most of first year. The only shock is what your fangirls will say. I can't believe this. It's so typical of you."

He blinked, feeling almost insulted, but only turned away in silence as she continued to mutter about stupid boys and their hormones.

There wasn't really anything he could say.

* * *

Despite his size, there were some sports Yuugi was good at. Running was one, but his legs would surrender to their length after the first kilometre, so he tended to keep that to himself. Some sports crossed into gaming territory, though, so no one was particularly surprised when it was revealed he could shoot baskets from the third line, or goalkeep in hockey. But there were quite a few things that he really and truly failed at.

"Yuugi, buddy, " Jounouchi began, "I mean this in the best way possible, but—"

"'Give me the volleyball and get off the court'?" Yuugi finished, holding out the ball. "I'll see if Bakura's ready to let Ryou come up for air and get them to swap with me."

"Aw, I didn't mean that," Jounouchi said, but he still grinned and snatched the ball away. Even having Yuugi on the court was somewhat detrimental to their team's chances of success in volleyball, and they had all known that. Problem was, when the volleyball tournament had been called into action, Bakura had dragged Ryou off to their hiding place under the headland, and neither had been seen since. Still. There was only so much a person could take.

The year group had been split into class groups, and then split again, so there were sixteen 'teams' spread across the beach, divided between the four courts that had been marked out. Yuugi watched them all as he passed, thinking he could commandeer the school camera and get some work done, but his absent smile faded when his eyes fell on one of the groups waiting for a court.

Atemu Yamino was lazing back on a towel, and not only Otogi, but also Anzu was sitting with him. Granted, she was in full-fledged lecture mode, and Otogi was laughing, meaning Atemu was the victim, but she was still sitting with him. He apparently wasn't listening, his half-closed eyes staring up at the sky and an irritated scowl on his lips, but they were still sitting together.

Yuugi quickly turned around, lowering his wide eyes to the ground and struggling to swallow. It didn't mean anything. Anzu had lots of friends, all over the school. Just because she'd always said she hated Atemu, and said she would always choose Yuugi's company over his, that didn't mean anything.

He licked his lips, then continued down the beach, unconsciously hunching his shoulders and bending his knees to make himself as small as possible.

After a few minutes of searching, he found Ryou and Bakura in what had become their usual spot – a small alcove directly under the headland. He had seen it enough times that Anzu and Honda said he should be used to it, but he still blushed when he found them halfway down each other's throats, Bakura's shirt hanging off his elbows and a steady heat spread over Ryou's cheeks.

"Uh, guys?" he stammered, keeping his eyes on a little pool of water that had formed just outside the alcove. "The teachers have been asking where you are. Everyone's supposed to play at least one game, remember?"

"We are playing a game," Bakura mumbled into Ryou's neck. "We're just not very good at team sports."

Ryou giggled at something Bakura had apparently just done, but managed to pull away long enough to answer, "We'll be right there, Yuugi-kun."

"Right," he said, then fled back out to the sand. He waited a few metres away, trying not to listen to his friends' pleased mumblings. Having never been in the situation, Yuugi couldn't really understand the attraction of just making out with someone for hours on end – especially if you were all clear to actually sleep with them at any given time. But then, he'd never actually been in a relationship at all, so he couldn't exactly talk about the attraction of anything couples did.

Anzu did. She'd had three boyfriends since middle school; all fairly serious ones, too. He didn't know how far she'd gone with them, and he didn't really want to know. But he still kind of hoped Atemu Yamino wouldn't end up number four. Not that he had any, like, right over who Atemu could date, but… still. That was crossing a line he didn't want to talk about.

He sighed, raising his eyes to the clouds above, and decided to refocus his attention on the possibility of rain. It kept him busy until Ryou and Bakura climbed out of their hole, clothes and hair completely straight and no sign of what they'd been doing even remotely visible.

"So you've been banished from playing, midget?" asked Bakura, and Yuugi nodded.

"We're not a great team anyway, and I'm just making things worse," he confessed. "All the good volleyball players are on our class' other team."

"Hah. We'll see about that," he said, cracking his knuckles. Yuugi raised his eyebrows, and Ryou grinned, but didn't say anything. Bakura made a point of leering at all the competition as they walked back toward their team, which thankfully kept Yuugi from noticing much until they reached the path back to the resort.

"I'm going to go and get the camera," Yuugi said, as they stopped to split up. "Get some photos of the people playing and stuff."

"Good idea. After I've played a game I'll come with you," said Ryou, and they both smiled before turning to go their separate ways.

Yuugi really liked Ryou, and Bakura was both reliable and funny, when he wanted to be. But he had to admit, seeing them together like that always made him a little uncomfortable. It wasn't that they were both guys, he was pretty sure, and it wasn't just because he was jealous of anyone in a relationship. But something about the two of them made him lonely in a way he hadn't been since third year middle school.

He shook his head firmly, breaking the thought off before it could go any further. He knew that feeling and had explored it enough that he just didn't want to go there anymore.

"Don't want to!" a familiar voice said, snapping him out of his thoughts. Yuugi slowed, setting his hand on the path fence as he recognised Anzu's voice from just around the corner. It hadn't been long enough for him to assume she wasn't still with Atemu. He grimaced, but forced himself to keep walking. He had never hid from Atemu before, and he wasn't going to start now.

"What's so different now?" snapped Atemu's voice. They were getting further away – probably walking faster than him, back to the cabins. "You still hate me, I still hate you, you just know something you don't need to, so you can leave me alone!"

"Ohh, no, no, no. Not anymore, not now I know this," she said irritably. "You're enough of a flake that you could carry this on for the rest of the year. This has only been going on for a month now, and you've made him miserable. I'm not letting you toy with him for another eight months!"

Yuugi unconsciously sped up, trying to stay in clear hearing distance.

"You know, you're as bad as Otogi, but more annoying," Atemu mused. "I'm handling this in my own way."

"Oh, and we've seen how well that works, haven't we?"

"Look, you –!" He cut himself off, then grunted. "You don't know what it's like, and you don't know what I've been though, so you can damn well shut up and get lost."

"Don't be so melodramatic! You just need to get off your arse and talk to him!"

"Why do you people keep saying that? It's not as easy as it sounds!"

"Coward!"

Yuugi could hear Atemu take a sharp breath, and decided he'd been skulking in the back for too long. He hurried around the corner, and the other two both flinched, staring at him. From the look of it, Atemu had been trying very hard not to do anything physical, and Anzu was straight-backed, her hands on her hips in her best lecturing pose. The scene would have been rather dramatic if they hadn't both been in swimsuits with baggy, open shirts. As it was, however, they looked like they'd been having a lovers' spat, and Yuugi had to remind himself they'd been arguing about someone else – quite possibly him.

"Yuugi," they both said, then glared at each other for silence. In the end, it was Anzu that turned her back on Atemu to speak. "Yuugi, Yamino needs to talk to you."

"We already have talked," he said quietly, looking between them nervously.

"Well, he needs to talk to you again," she said, and her arm lashed back to grab Atemu's shirt and yank him forward. He swore at her under his breath, but she just shoved him in front of her. "Go on, Yamino. Talk. Tell him what you told me."

"Like hell!" he hissed over his shoulder, but she just glared.

"Tell him what you told me," she repeated coldly, and Yuugi blinked.

"Yamino-kun?"

Atemu stared at him blankly for a second, then shook his head. "It's nothi—ow!" He glared back at Anzu, who was pulling her hand back from slapping his shoulder.

"You can't keep doing this. You ruined everything, you owe it to Yuugi to tell him the truth."

"It's got nothing to do with you!" he snapped, and she looked away in clear disagreement.

Yuugi hesitated a moment, then took a step forward. "Look, Anzu, it doesn't matter. We've already talked, and it's okay. Yamino-kun knows I don't blame him for what happened, and I've forgiven him and it's all okay."

"Then he lied," she said bluntly. "He lied about what happened—what really happened. Tell him, Yamino."

"Will you shut up?" he spat, then turned back to Yuugi. "Yuugi, um… she's right. I didn't get to tell you everything. It – it wasn't that you did anything but be you, and that was the problem."

Anzu sighed heavily, putting a hand to her temple, and Yuugi blinked at them both.

"We already went through this," he said slowly. "I know that. It was going to happen no matter what, so it was better to get it over with in one week rather than let it all just fall apart. I'm okay with it. Everything's fine."

"It's not fine!" cried Anzu. "This isn't over! Yamino, please!"

"Well, since you're such an expert, you tell us what we need to hear!" snapped Atemu, and she cried out in frustration, clenching her fists.

"It's not my place to say it! It's your problem, you fix it!"

"That's what I was going to do, if you had just stayed out of it!"

"No, you would've just let it simmer, like you have for the last four years!"

"I was dealing with the issues!"

"For _four years_?" she shouted, waving her arms. "That's not dealing with them, it's avoiding the issue!"

"Uh, Anzu? Yamino-kun?"

"Stay out of this!" they both snapped, and Yuugi nodded to himself, deciding discretion was indeed the better part of valour, in this situation. He hunched down as small as he could manage and slunk past, leaving them to their argument.

It might have been all about him, but he really had no idea what was going on.

* * *

_**Bit of a fic for you, some nice reviews for me?**_


	5. Admittance

Chapter Five – **_Admittance_**

**DISCLAIMER**: A young man walks into a bar and sits down next to a drunk, who pointedly turns to him and says "I bet you fifty bucks I can jump out that window and come back up without a scratch on me." What with the bar being twenty floors up, the young man, of course, slaps the money down and calls his bluff. The drunk wanders over to the window and jumps out. Ten minutes later he returns. Not a scratch on him. The young man is amazed and offers him another fifty to do it again – which the drunk does. "It's easy," he says when he comes back. "Anyone can do it, you just jump out that window right there. Go on, give it a shot." The young man, excited and emboldened by the drinks he's had in the meantime, runs over and jumps, falling twenty stories to his death. The bartender comes over and takes the drunk's drink away from him, annoyed.

"You know, you're a real prick when you're drunk, Superman."

* * *

It had been a good day.

The volleyball tournament had gotten louder and more enjoyable as the day went on, the energy of the winners leeching into the players that had lost and surging up into what really had to be described as a whirlwind of excitement. Even the nonathletic had joined the huge circle around the final match and screamed in triumph or tragedy as the second half of 3-F defeated the first half of 3-C with a spike straight into the sand between the first two lines. Everyone had been so full of adrenaline from the game that the teachers had no difficulty in getting the equipment put away and the bonfire dinner set up in time to light the first flame on a glorious, red-coated sunset.

The music was a DJ with J-pop records, and even Jounouchi, who despised pop with a passion, got up to dance. By seven, he and Anzu had danced together, been reprimanded by the teachers for such lewd movements, and then been asked to dance by dozens of other people that had barely been aware of their existence. Their friends hadn't seen either of them since.

Maybe it was the magic of a bonfire, Yuugi thought lazily. Everyone in the entire year group had gotten along, as if there were no such thing as social groups or cliques. It had just been a fun, easy-going night.

It was past midnight now, though, and the party was slowing down. A lot of people had gotten sunburnt over the day, and the bonfire dinner had been big and filling, so everyone was getting tired. The DJ had already packed up and left, so the only sounds were the crackling wood of the fire and the ocean waves. Everyone's voices had lowered to match, and the mood was soft.

Some people had begun drifting back to the cabins, but Yuugi was still with Bakura and Honda, feeding the last bits of driftwood to the waning bonfire. Ryou was curled around Bakura's shoulder and staring into the flames, his tired gaze reflecting the fire in darker tones, and every so often, Bakura would lift his hand to pat or rub Ryou's arm. Even Yuugi knew it was a sign of how relaxed he was to be so gently affectionate.

It had been a good night.

A loud sigh made them look up as Miho suddenly appeared to kneel down beside Honda. They glanced at her, but she just smiled wearily and leaned into his shoulder. "I'm tired."

"Yes," Ryou murmured. "I imagine everyone is, after a day like today."

"A good day," she added, and closed her eyes. "Mm… Honda-kun's shoulder is comfy…"

He blushed, and Yuugi bit his lip, suddenly noticing he was the only one without a partner. He took a deep breath and pushed himself to his feet, absently brushing down the front of his jeans. "I'm going to go for a walk before turning in. I'll see you in the morning, guys."

They all mumbled in response, and Yuugi started off toward the docks. Most of the couples (and teacher/watchdogs) had been seen heading for the headland, and Yuugi didn't feel any particular need to be reminded of his singularity. He hadn't seen anyone head in this direction, though – it probably wasn't nearly as romantic as nature, and all that.

Sure enough, he had been walking for almost ten minutes before he saw anyone, and even then it was only a single figure sitting alone, high up the shoreline. But he could recognise the silhouette, and he was almost certain he could see eyes glinting at him through the darkness. He sighed, pausing to consider for a moment before shifting his path up the sand.

He really was trying, but he hadn't been able to enjoy this vacation. He hadn't really been enjoying the whole school year, so far. Every time he tried to relax, his thoughts turned to Atemu and how he'd been acting. It had been easy enough to forget him when they were in different classes, but it was hard to ignore a person that seemed to be looking at you every time you looked at them. Today, despite what a good day it had been, Yuugi's thoughts had been completely centred on Atemu and Anzu, and what they had been doing together.

There were a few ways he could deal with either problem, but only one way to deal with both. And he'd had enough running away, these past few years.

He stopped less than a metre away, and Atemu looked up at him in silence for several seconds before turning his head away with a heavy breath.

"Are you o–" Yuugi hesitated, then decided neither of them seemed to be in the mood for it. He pushed his fists into his pockets, settling down into his usual slouch. "What are you doing here?"

"Same thing I've been doing all day," Atemu said quietly. "Avoiding Mazaki. For people who don't want to know I exist, you all seem to be finding it very hard to stay away from me."

He hesitated again, shifting his weight between his feet. "Grandpa always says that if something happens more than twice, it's not a coincidence."

"There is no coincidence in this world. There is only inevitability," Atemu muttered, and Yuugi blinked. After a moment, Atemu looked at him again, then shrugged and sat back. "What do you want?"

"Nothing. I was just walking this way," he said, gesturing down to the beach. "I saw you with Anzu today and I thought that if you two are going to spend time together, I should make sure we really are okay."

Atemu stared at him for another few moments, his eyes narrowing in an emotion that was too hard to see in the dim light. "Yuugi…" He trailed off, as if that was all he could say, before he thumped his fists against the sand in a sudden change of mood. "No. No, I'm not okay. I'm not okay with this, us, or anything. But you say it's fine, so it's fine."

"Huh?"

"I –" He hesitated, then shook his head and tried again. "You keep saying that what happened between us happened for a reason, but it didn't. You, honestly, did nothing wrong, and there was nothing I would change about who you were or what you did. It was me; it was all me, and I'm not okay with that being the end of it."

For a moment, Yuugi just stared at him, before the words clicked and he leaned back.

"You say you forgive me and we shouldn't try to go back, but that's not good enough," he continued. "Yuugi, I'm sorry, I really am, and I want to do anything I can to fix it, but I need something more than just forgiveness."

"No, you don't," Yuugi whispered, careful to keep his expression blank. "You think you do, because you're feeling guilty, but it really is okay. I have my own friends now, I don't need charity."

"It's not charity, Yuugi, I want you –" He cut himself off, but Yuugi didn't even notice. He had already turned away before Atemu managed to keep going. "I want you to be my friend again, Yuugi."

"Don't do this," he begged quietly, blocking out the sounds of Atemu standing up and moving toward him. He started walking away, but Atemu quickly followed, half a step faster.

"I'm not trying say we should forget it and carry on like it never happened, but I mi- I – You can't tell me you don't think about it!" he cried, sounding strangely frustrated with himself, but Yuugi just shook his head, trotting a few steps to stay ahead.

"Don't do it," he said again. "You'll regret it; neither of us want this. Don't say something you'll regret."

"I already did," he said, and Yuugi stopped walking, clenching his eyes shut against the sadness in Atemu's voice. When neither of them said anything for a minute, Yuugi looked over his shoulder to see if Atemu was still there. He had stopped when Yuugi did, his head bowed so that his eyes were in complete shadow and all the light was gone from his form. "I regret everything about that whole year."

"Don't," Yuugi said, before he could stop himself. He swallowed, curling his arms around himself defensively. "We both know what happened. We don't need to go back there."

They were silent for another moment, before Atemu murmured, "You remember what you said to me?"

Yuugi frowned, and Atemu raised his head to meet his gaze. "You said you'd always be there. You would wait for me, until I was ready. You said that."

He shook his head slightly. "You don't want to say any of this, Yamino-kun."

"We were eight, and I'd gotten suspended from school, and you told me that it didn't matter what I did; you would be there whenever I wanted to talk about anything," he said quietly.

"Yamino-kun…"

"We were eleven, and you found out I'd failed my grammar test, and you told me that you would always be there to help me."

"Please…"

"We were fourteen, and you said you would be there," he said, then took the last two steps forward to stand right in front of him, gripping his elbow to turn him so they were finally facing each other again. "You remember that?"

"Please don't ask that," he whispered.

"I need you now, Yuugi. I need to talk to you, and I need you to be here," he said, and Yuugi clenched his teeth, shaking his head firmly, but Atemu didn't let him go. His grip was firm but lighter than Yuugi remembered; he could have pulled away without trying, but it was so hard when he so badly wanted to give in.

He closed his eyes, shifting his arm until Atemu was holding his forearm instead. "I've said no to everyone from Anzu to Pegasus J. Crawford," he whispered, then opened his eyes and looked up, suddenly feeling exhausted. "Why can't I say no to you?"

Atemu smiled, leaning down until his forehead touched Yuugi's hair.

* * *

It was a beautiful night, but it seemed as if all the warmth from the air had been sapped by the bonfire, and the tension that always existed between them these days was keeping the mood cold and sharp. But despite that, he kept finding the muscles in his arms relaxing, his shoulders unhunching and his feet leading him closer to Atemu than he really wanted to be.

It had been Atemu to suggest they walk up to the docks and back. If he hadn't explained everything by the time they got back to the resort beach, he said, he would just say it all at once. He thought there could only be a limited number of times Yuugi would put up with him making a mess out of this, and Yuugi had to agree.

They were halfway between anything, and the sounds from the bonfire and resort had faded into the waves and wind, so they knew they were alone. Yuugi slipped his hands into his pockets, preparing himself as Atemu cleared his throat.

"You remember those movies we used to watch?" he asked, and Yuugi looked up at him patiently. "Not the Friday night ones. The daytime TV specials."

"The cheesy meaningful movies we pretended to make fun of."

"Yeah… You remember how they'd go through all this really terrible stuff, but it'd work out okay in the end?" Atemu narrowed his eyes as he lowered his gaze to the sand in front of him. "I always wanted real life to be like that. For things to just inevitably happen, all very simply and obviously, and so you get to the end and you suddenly realise you've had a life-changing event."

Yuugi furrowed his brow, wondering where this could possibly go. For him, life was usually an awful lot like those bad TV movies, as he went through huge problems that seemed incredibly simple while he was doing them. But then, as Jounouchi regularly joked, his life wasn't particularly normal.

"You remember those ones with the people that found out they had weird diseases, and then everyone hated them or treated them differently?" Atemu continued quietly. "Their families would disown them, and their friends wouldn't like them anymore, but then somebody would and there would be a major turning point and lots of tears and everything would be fine."

"Mm…"

"It's really not like that in real life," he said quietly, all inflection gone from his tone. "You don't tell anyone about it. Not until you've figured it all out for yourself. And then you just let people figure it out for themselves and don't care if they don't."

Yuugi's eyes widened slightly, and he looked up at him in shock. "Yamino-kun?"

"Working things out isn't like those movies either," he continued quietly. "There's not always someone there to help you figure out what's going on. No one to slowly ease you into it, or force you to wake up to yourself. You screw a lot up and make a lot of mistakes, because that's all you can do to work everything out. Nothing like the movies. The hard part in those things is other people, when really it's fixing the things you screwed up that makes it all difficult."

Yuugi unconsciously reached out to touch him, but then stopped and frowned. He'd assumed Atemu was trying to tell him he had some strange and disfiguring disease, but that couldn't be right. Atemu had just woken up the morning after Dendera's tenth birthday party and changed his whole attitude. He couldn't have figured out he had some terrible disease while he was asleep.

He stopped walking, folding his arms over his chest in annoyance. He'd really had him going there for a second.

Atemu seemed to notice he'd stopped, because he veered off to the side, gazing out across the ocean instead of walking forward. "Course, sometimes it's not really a disease. It's a 'lifestyle choice' that you don't choose," he said. "Still feels like it, though. Feels like something sick that's infected you. But it's still a lot like a disease – you try and cure it by staying away from the things that might have caused it."

"A lifestyle choice?" Yuugi repeated, his annoyance slipping with his confusion. "Yamino-kun, what –"

He cut him off by twisting around to look at him from the corner of his eye. They just gazed at each other for a long moment, before Atemu sighed in hopeless resignation and turned away, setting his hands on his hips.

"Your pals make it look easy, and the movies screw it all up," he said lowly. "But it's the reason for everything. It's why I screwed things up with you and me."

Yuugi frowned, tilting his head in confusion. "What? My friends? Which ones? What?"

He smiled humourlessly, looking all over but seeing nothing. It figured he would have to go straightforward in the end. "I'm gay, Yuugi."

"You're – what?"

He looked around at him, his pointed look lost in the darkness, and Yuugi just stared for several long seconds before the words actually processed. He blinked, then jerked forward, his eyes widening to their full size in disbelief.

"B- but you – All the girls – You can't be – Are you?"

"Yeah."

"For real?"

"Most definitely."

"Really…?"

"Really."

Yuugi continued blinking, utterly stumped for a few seconds. He hesitated, then turned and walked a few metres up the beach, paused, then trotted back to where Atemu stood. "I don't get it. What's that got to do with you not talking to me anymore?"

"I just said," he said irritably. "I tried to make it stop by staying away from what I was noticing."

Yuugi stared at him again, gesturing for more. "And?"

"I was noticing you."

"You… what? What, like… _noticing_, noticing? _Me_?"

"Yes."

"B- but… I'm not… Am I?"

"Yuugi…"

He hesitated, then abruptly spun around again and walked back up the beach to the scrub bush. He hesitated, and then turned and sat down, hard. Atemu watched him quietly for a moment, but Yuugi didn't even notice; just put a hand to his mouth in still shocked thought.

"I was trying to –"

"But you knew me better than that!" Yuugi interrupted, lowering his hand to stare at him again. "You must've known I wouldn't have cared!"

At first, it didn't seem like Atemu would answer, standing completely still by the lapping water. Then he suddenly spun around to glare at him, his arms thrown wide in point. "I would have, though!" he shouted. "I'm not like you, Yuugi! I'm selfish and insensitive and just generally a jerk! Think about it – if you had come to me and told me you were gay, how would I have reacted?"

Yuugi didn't answer, wary of anyone that yelled, even if it was really intended for themselves, and Atemu shoved an irritated hand back through his hair.

"I would have been freaked out, and that is exactly what happened! I was freaking out and panicking and noticing you in all sorts of ways that were so wrong but really familiar, so I must've been doing it before and I just never noticed!" he shouted. "I'd never thought of myself like that – I'd never thought of myself at all! I'd never had to, because you were always there and it was always fine! But now you were the source of all the problems and I suddenly had to think about myself! It's damn well terrifying!"

Yuugi's hand rose back to his mouth, and Atemu turned away, putting his hands back on his hips and gazing over at the docks. "There's always someone to help you out in movies. Someone who's been there. That or they're some pathetic little thing that cries a lot and goes to counsellors and bars and searches for some big strong man to teach them the ways of the world. I couldn't do that. I couldn't deal with it at all."

Yuugi licked his lips, staring at him blankly. Of all the things he had considered as reasoning over the years, this had never even come close. He had once, in his first year of high school, considered that Atemu might have been trying to protect him from someone, but from _himself_ was something that had never even crossed his mind.

It made a ridiculous amount of sense. Atemu could be really stupid about internal problems.

But it also made Yuugi feel incredibly bad for not noticing. Atemu wasn't the type to ask anyone for help, and he was too proud to let stuff like this show on the outside. Probably too arrogant to think anyone else would know what he was going through, too. Four years of trying to deal with this on his own…

"Once I worked it out, I… I tried to talk to you," Atemu said, and slowly turned back to face him, folding his arms over his waist. "But before I knew it, you had all these friends and you seemed so much happier without me. Hell, I don't know, maybe you decided you were better off, and there was nothing I could do."

Yuugi lowered his gaze to his knees as Atemu started walking up the sand toward him. A lot of things had suddenly begun to make sense – things Yuugi had never even thought about before. Weird mood swings when they were growing up… why Atemu was never particularly impressed when Yuugi finally agreed to watch anime just because of the hot girls… those odd looks Atemu had started giving him in middle school… Even that morning things had gone so wrong, Atemu had been having a dream and woke up flushed… Yuugi raised his hand up to cover his eyes, suddenly mortified. If it actually had been about him, that would have been worse than when his grandfather had woken him up from that dream with… Even thinking about it… ugh…!

Atemu slumped down on the sand a good metre away from him, and Yuugi peeked at him through his fingers, still blushing hotly. It was hard to see Atemu's expression in the dark, and his body language wasn't giving anything away. By the time Yuugi's blush had died down, a new thought had started to bug him. "Why talk to me now, then?"

"Otogi found out," he admitted quietly. "He seems to think that you talking to me again is somehow beneficial to him."

"Huh?"

"He said that it's good for you, and he owes you one. I didn't follow the rest."

"Huh." There was a long pause as Yuugi considered, and he lowered his hands to his lap, hunching his shoulders again. "I can't go back to how it was."

Atemu nodded quietly. "I know."

"Four years doesn't just go away. I thought I hated you and vice versa."

He sighed, but still murmured, "I know."

"But I don't."

Atemu hesitated, then looked around at him, surprised. Yuugi frowned, then looked away again, hunching his shoulders even higher. "I just… need time. To deal, you know? I… I hadn't even thought, and… but it makes so much sense, and…"

"Yuugi?"

"I'm not – I'm not doing anything tomorrow afternoon," he said slowly, then quickly shoved himself to his feet. "If – if you wanted, I could… We could talk. About stuff. In your cabin maybe?"

Atemu nodded silently, staring at him.

"I… I just need to think about this for a while, so… so I'll maybe see you then, okay?" he said, and didn't wait for an answer before turning and hurrying off.

Atemu stared after him for almost a full minute, wondering how the conversation had worked out and then ended without his noticing, before Yuugi's offer suddenly hit him. Tomorrow afternoon. Talking. With Yuugi.

He fell back on the sand and stared up at the sky, marvelling at the existence of anyone as strange and amazing as Yuugi Mutou.

* * *

After the torture that was his and Anzu's combined nagging over an entire day, Otogi had decided to give Atemu the morning off rollcall, and so left him in bed, theoretically to sleep in for a few hours. But Atemu wasn't sleeping. He was dozing fitfully, old dreams, memories and paranoid fantasies of Yuugi showing up to just begin listing off every single one of his faults combining to ruin any chances of proper sleep he might have had.

By eight he had just given up and crawled into the bathroom to drown himself under a scalding hot shower. His room mates never came back during the day; usually because Otogi had some creature with a pulse to chat up and the other two were spending their time watching the girls in their swimsuits. So he was free to stand under the showerhead for almost an hour, not even thinking; just letting the water comfort him somehow.

Atemu had always found it remarkably easy to dislike people. He could vaguely remember having a hard time in lower school because of his colouring, but he didn't think that had as much to do with it as his core personality. He had always just loved what he liked and hated what he didn't. He was short-tempered and reactionary, and that made trusting people hard. The only one who had ever made it easy was Yuugi.

He didn't remember how they met. He knew, more than remembered, that Yuugi's mother had agreed to take care of him because most of the care centres he'd gone to had given him up as a socially lost cause. And when he'd first stopped hanging around Yuugi, his father had told him a story about Atemu coming home from his first day at the game shop and announcing that his family had to adopt Yuugi so they could always be together. At the time, though, the story had snapped Atemu's last frayed nerve and he'd thrown a glass across the room before storming out to not speak to his family for a whole month.

It had taken almost a year for him to understand and even partially accept he was gay. The worst year of his life. He had never hated anything so much as he hated everything that year, and there was no one to take it out on because he had only ever had Yuugi. He'd never talked to anyone about it, and nobody knew, until they began doing tours of high schools. One of the council members from a private school Atemu's parents wanted him to go to had made a comment as a joke, earned a black look from Atemu, and figured it out. He pulled him aside and introduced him to the school's support group before inviting him to a party they were throwing.

That was the only part that had ever seemed like the bad movies he used to watch with Yuugi. Lots of flirting, lots of effeminate men and tomboys, and one really bad one-night-stand. But despite its cliché habits and attendees, the party was enough that Atemu officially worked himself out.

He had relaxed after that, but there had still never been anyone like Yuugi. Probably because, as Anzu had so kindly pointed out, Yuugi was just too good to be true. You didn't usually get people so kind and understanding. He was a perfectly amazing anomaly, and Atemu had just been the first one to figure it out.

So, even if Anzu was also right on his disappearance having changed Yuugi for the worse, it really was strange that he had become such a complete social outcast.

He was still considering that as he searched the kitchenette cupboards for food that wasn't Otogi's and therefore disgustingly healthy when a sudden knock at the door broke him out of his thoughts. He hesitated, wondering at the likelihood of that being Yuugi, then decided to take the chance and hurried over to open the door.

Sure enough, Yuugi was standing on the steps, one foot raised as if he were debating whether he should continuing the running away he'd apparently just begun or stay. He looked up at Atemu, opened his mouth, and then closed it with a pained sigh that said more than words could. Rather than the witty and intelligent greeting Atemu had planned, he managed a broken chuckle, and they both grimaced in apology.

"Sorry, I didn't –"

"Sorry about being –"

They both stopped, then cringed, and Yuugi motioned for Atemu to start. He coughed and shrugged. "Just, see… no food in here. I was gonna go and get some."

"Oh. Well, um…" Yuugi paused, then touched the strap of the backpack over his shoulders in an almost compulsive gesture. "I uh… I was… not doing anything so… procrastinating, really… I went by the buffet and…"

"Oh. Oh, good, then, um…" He waved his hand, then jerked back inside, holding the door open for him. "You – come in."

"M- mm…" He grinned nervously, then clenched his eyes shut in another pained grimace and stepped back up onto the porch and into the cabin. They avoided each other's gaze as Yuugi took off his shoes and bag, and Atemu then led the way around to the couch. They stared blankly for a second before Yuugi flinched and held out the bag. "Sorry to be early. I just – there's stuff in there – mainly bread product things because I couldn't get anything really substantial and there wasn't much left and – and I'm rambling and – sorry."

"That's… okay. Um, thanks," he said, and then dropped down to the couch and waved at the table. "Just put it – sit down."

Yuugi hesitated, and Atemu caught himself guessing it was because he was still contemplating running for the door. But he slowly lowered himself to perch on the edge of the cushion, and opened his bag to show the bread, croissants, fruit and tiny packets of cereal he had taken from the breakfast buffet. The couch and table set up was the largest setting in the entire cabin, taking up over half the main room with its three-sided square lounge and the large, low table set within it. That meant that by sitting on opposite sides of the lounge, Atemu and Yuugi were now facing each other and, in their overly nervous state, were much too close. He got up and started toward the kettle, gesturing to ask if Yuugi wanted anything, and when he shook his head, Atemu moved back to the corner of the lounge instead, sitting back with his arms and legs crossed.

The extended silence was unbearable, but Yuugi still looked ready to bolt and Atemu couldn't think of anything to say that wouldn't result in said movement. Minutes passed before Yuugi suddenly croaked and cut himself off, but Atemu still caught it and looked up.

"What?"

"It – nothing," he said quickly, and Atemu shook his head.

"No, really, what?"

"I – I was just… it's gonna sound bad and I shouldn't pry," he said, smiling weakly. "Really."

"Yuugi, you have more than the right to," he said, but Yuugi tilted his head, still hesitating, so Atemu unfolded his limbs and shifted, forcing himself to look more open. "Really. Anything, I'll understand and answer."

He bared his teeth in a nervous grimace, then groaned and surrendered. "I was just… I'm having trouble imagining you as – back in middle school, was everything we did kinda… more than friends?"

"Oh! Oh, no," he said, shaking his head quickly. "No, I… once I was aware of what we – what _I _was thinking, I – it was pretty much that one week in second year. Everything before was just… I thought… us. Friends, I mean."

Yuugi blinked, and Atemu had to continue. "But, of course, in hindsight, it takes on a different viewpoint. Some of the stuff I did, I'll admit, was probably—subconsciously, of course—less than platonic."

"Like the… the um…"

"Beating up people that wanted to be your friend was probably the big one," he admitted haltingly, and Yuugi managed a weak laugh.

"Oh yeah… forgotten that."

"Yeah…"

Their apprehensive laughter trailed off, and Yuugi looked up at him nervously for a moment before suddenly hunching forward. "Can I ask – just – why?"

"Why?" he repeated blankly. "Why what?"

"Wh- why m- I mean…" He hesitated, then gestured to the window in an almost absent gesture. "All the other people in the world… Better people… Why… why me?"

Atemu stared at him blankly for a moment, then leaned forward from the waist, disbelieving. "Why you what? Why were you my best friend? Why did Anzu have a thing for you? Why did I? It's all the same answer, why any of it?"

"Exactly."

"What?"

"That!"

"What?"

"Why did you –" He cut himself off with a groan, his head falling forward. "Forget it."

Atemu sighed and sat back again, but Yuugi was only silent for a moment before looking up again. "How did you know?"

"What?"

"How did you know whether you were…" Yuugi rolled his hand in continuation of the question, and Atemu nodded in understanding, but couldn't help the slight flush spreading over his cheeks.

"Probably because everything you used to think about girls, I was starting to think about – well – you."

Yuugi blushed but didn't say anything, just straightened his back a little.

"I… At first I really did think it was just spending too much time with you. I mean, I didn't spend time with anyone else, unless you forced me to, so I just thought maybe it was… Freudian or something. No other influence, you know?" he said, and Yuugi nodded. "But even after… all that, girls just never happened. I would look at them and just start wondering how breasts didn't get in the way, or how hips look better smaller and… Then I met someone and went to a party, and it was basically confirmed in the space of one night."

"Really?"

Atemu looked up, slightly surprised to see Yuugi leaning further forward, his apprehension apparently gone with his curiosity.

"One night? How… Do you mean you did… everything? In one night?"

"Well…" He sighed, shaking his head. "Yuugi, it's – it's hard to explain. Things move… faster when you're in that state of mind. I'd spent the last year alone. I wouldn't talk to anyone, and I thought no one could possibly understand. All I'd ever really had was you, and I'd just cut myself off. But then there were all these people that said they'd been through the exact same thing and they knew exactly how I felt and they said they could make it all better. I would have done anything to just stop feeling so angry all the time. I didn't care about taking it slow or thinking things through. I just wanted some kind of release."

Yuugi stared at him for a long moment, then lowered his head and let his hair fall past his eyes. "Mm… I'll believe that."

"Of course, they weren't anything like me, and none of them had actually been through what I had," Atemu continued, slumping a little further down in his seat. "But for that one night… I didn't care. I've got a bit of habit of apathy, when it comes to other people."

Yuugi's head sunk a little lower over his hands as he nodded. Atemu propped his feet on the table and crossed his arms over his chest, lost in his memories for a while. "Not that there's really much point in explaining it to you," he said lowly, eyeing Yuugi from the corner of his eyes. "It was probably a lot more romantic for your first, right?"

He shook his head silently, and Atemu raised his head, surprised, so Yuugi lifted his own to force a smile. "I, um… haven't had it," he said, and looked down again. "Nothing's really happened in that area, yet."

Atemu blinked, tilting his head curiously. "No girlfriends? Mazaki said you two never got together, but…"

"Nothing," he confirmed. "I'm a bit of a loss in all areas, really."

"Yuugi…?"

He coughed out a laugh and sat up, closing his eyes in a broad smile. "Go figure that, huh? You were always the one that didn't have hormones or like people and here we are, years later, in the complete opposite situation!" he said brightly, then opened his eyes to look at him curiously. "So, do you have a b- boyfriend, or…?"

Atemu stared at him worriedly for a moment, then slowly shook his head. "I did during first year. We broke up before winter vacation, though," he said, and then cringed at the memory and looked away. He had met Kenichi through ninja, and they had conducted all the most meaningful points of their relationship in the doujou, including their very loud and somewhat violent break up. They had been sparring when Kenichi suddenly snapped that if they were going to keep dating, Atemu would have to at least try to give him more affection than any old playing card he found in the street. He had then delivered a very painful blow to Atemu's sternum that sent him tumbling across the mat.

More embarrassing than upsetting, as far as Atemu was concerned.

After a few moments' waiting, Yuugi asked about the relationship, and Atemu ended up telling him everything. The description included a lot more than he had intended, from Kenichi's habit of dying his hair different neon colours to their break up; including the result of the sternum hit, which had been all out armed combat.

"Of course, the worst thing," he added, over the top of Yuugi's giggles, "was that we'd conveniently forgotten about the security cameras—"

"Again?" he cried, remembering the first part of the story when Kenichi and Atemu had been caught making out on camera.

"Yes, again, thank you… Anyway, so our whole fight was on security cameras, so the head sensei got his son to edit the footage, put music to it, and it's now used as a promotional video for armed ninja."

"Oh, no!"

"Oh, yes."

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" he cried, but he was still laughing, so Atemu wasn't particularly comforted.

"The only good thing was that Ken was so embarrassed he left the doujou, so I didn't have to."

"Do you hear from him anymore?"

"No… saw him at a tournament last year, though. He'd shaved his head."

"Mourning your relationship?" Yuugi offered, and Atemu snorted.

"Yeah, maybe," he said, then sat up out of his comfortable slouch. "You want something to drink, yet? Tea?"

"Oh, I can make it," he said. "I'm closer."

Atemu smiled, then blinked as Yuugi stood up and turned away. He'd felt extremely comfortable talking about Kenichi – something he'd never been before. He opened his mouth to comment on it, then realised who he was with and sank back into the couch, considering it instead. Yuugi turned around to lean on the bench as the kettle boiled, and they eyed each other carefully for a moment.

"So…" Atemu began again. "Jounouchi and Honda… when'd that happen?"

"Hm?"

"Your bodyguards? When'd you get them?" he asked, and Yuugi blinked again before laughing.

"Oh, yeah. First year. Jounouch-kun and I… well, really it was – there was this guy that was bugging us, and it was kind of… enemy of my enemy, you know?" He winced, then shrugged. "Then things just kind of… domino effected."

"Hm?"

"Well… Third year of middle school wasn't so great for me either," he said, turning around again even though the kettle still hadn't boiled. "Anzu stopped talking to me, and everyone else pretty much had too. After a while it was pretty obvious you were mad at me—even if you weren't, it looked that way to everyone—and you have to have noticed your rise in status since you stopped spending time with me."

"Status?"

"You were above everyone," he explained, carelessly waving his hand around his head. "It had actually started back in first year – you know how thirteen year olds like to look like they don't care about anything. Only neither of us really noticed that you were the one people were looking up to, because we were always together, so, you know… much of a muchness."

Atemu blinked, then slowly nodded. "That explains a lot, actually…"

"It's just habit now, I think. You're supposed to be cool and popular, so you are."

"What did this have to do with anything about us not spending time together?"

He shrugged, but his shoulders didn't lower all the way, and his hands started fidgeting over the cups in front of him. "People thought you were mad at me. They figured they should be, too."

"Ah." Now that really did explain a lot. "So… high school started, and it was all fine?"

"Mm-mm," he said, shaking his head but still careful not to turn enough to look at him. "I dunno… Anzu says I'm a lot more confident lately, and that's why people talk to me now, but I don't think so. I think everyone's just started growing up and talking to everyone else. But that first term was… it was kinda rough."

Atemu frowned, sliding back down on his seat. He knew he didn't really need details on that area – what Otogi called his 'stalking' had always kept him fairly well informed as to Yuugi's problems at school. But it had all gotten relatively confused toward the end of first term, when Jounouchi and Honda suddenly took to spending time with Yuugi. He had thought they were a problem, and had been just waiting for a good reason to scare them off.

"But then there was this one guy that Jounouch-kun and I were both having problems with, and we became friends, and then Anzu came back because the other girls were all talking about their boyfriends, and Honda-kun was Jounouch-kun's best friend, so the four of us started hanging out. Then Ryou-kun and I started getting paired together for gym class, because we were generally at the same level. Then there was that whole thing with Bakura-kun," He paused and Atemu rolled his eyes up to the ceiling, amused at the scene he'd heard about through the grape vine – something about the trackfield and Ryou very nearly fainting from shock over a kiss that had reportedly lasted almost thirty seconds. His smirk faded as Yuugi twisted around to look at him over his shoulder. "It was pretty big, what happened – the teachers and both their parents had heaps of conferences about it. Bakura-kun almost got kicked out of school _and _home. Ryou-kun already lived on his own because his father was out of the country so often, and Bakura-kun had moved in with him before the freshman ski-trip. But it was pretty close to some of those bad movies you were talking about, at some points."

Atemu just gazed back at him in silence for a long moment, but the kettle boiling jerked Yuugi back to attention before either of them could comment.

"Why did he take Ryou's family name?" Atemu asked suddenly, as Yuugi poured the hot water into the cups. "Did his family really disown him, or…?"

"Mm-mm. You have to have noticed that the teachers still call him 'Makinda'. He's still part of the family, he just… doesn't talk to them much. It's more because of who Bakura-kun is," he said. "He… Bakura-kun doesn't talk much, and… even with Ryou-kun he doesn't really express himself well. He says it was just so no one else would get any ideas about Ryou-kun, but we all know it was really just the closest he could get to saying he cares."

He put down the kettle and picked up the cups, but instead of returning to his original seat after handing Atemu his drink, he settled on the cushion Atemu had originally vacated and pulled his knees up to his chest to peer over. Atemu gave the shift a quick glance of appraisal, but decided commenting could very well make Yuugi move again, and so focussed on his tea, instead.

The conversation started to drift, as Atemu asked about the rumour that Yuugi was apparently friends with Seto Kaiba, and then they talked over their respective friendships with Otogi, and Yuugi boggled with disbelief over his friend, and then anyone in general, being bisexual. They wound up discussing that for several minutes, and Atemu was reminded of exactly how naïve Yuugi could be on the ways of people and the world. From there, talked shifted to families, and Yuugi admitted to having talked to Dendera a few times over the years, while Atemu found out Yuugi's parents had become progressively more absent – even more than they had been in his childhood, which was saying something. Atemu had to admit to his own failed familial relationship, and the conversation quickly moved to on to Yuugi's grandfather, which inevitably led back to Yuugi's somewhat startlingly adventurous life.

"It's a Mutou thing," Yuugi explained as they tore into the bread from Yuugi's backpack. "Grandpa says it happened to him, too. The day he turned sixteen, a bunch of martial artists decided he would make good company, and so he got caught up in their mini-wars. Then he started gaming, and I bet you know how ludicrous that can get."

Atemu hesitated, thinking back over Pegasus, and then to Kaiba, and then all the psychotics he had met during the various tournaments. Insector Haga came to mind, and he found himself wincing as he nodded. "Yeah… actually, I do…"

"Same thing for me, only, since I'm not very good with professional gaming, the chaos comes in other forms, like… Kaiba-kun, and Otogi-kun, and Rebecca Hopkins—'

"Hopkins… that American child prodigy?" asked Atemu, blinking. "I duelled her once. She didn't have a particularly honourable duelling strategy."

"Mm… she's gotten a lot better now, though. But she's a pretty typical American – grew up really fast," he said, wincing at something only he knew. "She comes over every few months to see us. Her grandfather's a professor of archaeology, and an old friend of Grandpa's. He does really interesting work, actually: he researches the origins of games in ancient cultures."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, it's so cool," he said, and Atemu raised his eyebrows at an excited hitch in Yuugi's tone. "All these games that we just say have been around forever actually have! They've just been in different forms. Like playing cards. Pretty normal and boring, right? But they originated from Tarot Cards, and Professor Hopkins says tarot cards actually came from paintings and tablets of monsters back in _Ancient Egypt_."

Atemu blinked, then shifted to face him a little more, interested. He personally had never cared much about history – the past was there to support you and carry you forward, but he didn't like to live in it. Yuugi, on the other hand, had had a closeted obsession with it when he was younger. It was surprising to know he was still interested.

"The history of games goes back five thousand years," he continued, unable to hide the excitement in his tone. "Grandpa always told me that, but Professor Hopkins is actually going out there and proving it! He's even writing a paper on it, and he's going to let me read it when he's finished!"

"Do you know anything about it, yet?"

"Mm! He's doing a huge section on Duel Monsters, which is why he comes over to see us so often – Grandpa's one of his sources on it. Pegasus actually designed Duel Monsters off rituals that great priests performed, three thousand years ago in Egypt. The original monsters came straight from tablets he found in underground tombs!" he said, then sat back, grinning. "Can you imagine? Black Magician, the Blue Eyes White Dragon… even Kuribou! They were all part of Egyptian mythology!"

"No guesses as to what you're going to do when you grow up," murmured Atemu, and Yuugi blinked.

"Huh?"

He waved at him, encompassing all Yuugi's excitement in one movement. "You're going to study archaeology, aren't you? Follow Professor Hopkins' footsteps."

Yuugi blinked again, then blushed, lowering his gaze back to his knees. "No… Soon as school ends, I'm taking over the game shop. Grandpa's back is getting worse every week, but he won't hire anyone to help," he said quietly, and Atemu frowned.

"But what about university?"

He shook his head, smiling helplessly. "I'm not smart enough for that."

"But you were always going to go," he said, staring at him blankly. "And you're so into Professor Hopkins' research – you're going to study history, at least, right?"

"Mm-mm. My grades aren't good enough for a public school," he said quietly. "And even if they were, I… The fees are just too big. I can't afford it."

He hesitated, and Yuugi forced another smile, looking up with a shrug. "Besides, it's not like I'd be good at it! The only thing I know is games! The game shop's made for me!"

Atemu gazed at him silently for a moment, then pulled himself out of his slouch to shift down the cushion and sit beside him, keeping their eyes locked. Yuugi leaned back a little, but Atemu put a hand on his arm before he could go too far.

"You could do it," he said softly, and gently squeezed Yuugi's arm when he scoffed. "Take a year off to earn the money, or get a loan… If you want to, you should study. You'd be great at it."

Yuugi blushed, then ducked his head and looked away. "Maybe…"

But his smile stayed steady, and neither of them moved as the conversation continued on to less meaningful territory. Eventually, it was nothing but friendly banter as they discussed the duellists they both knew, either personally or by proxy. When a slight confusion caused Atemu to check the clock for the date, he was honestly surprised to realise it was almost five.

"Oh, crap!" cried Yuugi, jumping up from the couch. "I promised Jounouch-kun I'd be back by four to take over camera duty! How'd it get so late?"

"No idea," he confessed, slowly standing as Yuugi gathered his backpack and its contents together. Atemu walked him to the door, but Yuugi paused at the threshold, looking up at him with an unreadable expression. They both paused, and Yuugi's hand slowly dropped until his backpack could rest on the porch outside.

"Um… I um… had a good time today, Yamino-kun," he said quietly, and Atemu lowered his eyes, then coughed and leaned on the door in what he hoped was a nonchalant pose.

"Me too," he said, and then carefully shifted his gaze back to Yuugi. "It was good to hear Grandfather Sugoroku's still doing okay. I think about him sometimes and worry."

"Well, to be honest, he's not as good as he could be," Yuugi said, folding his arms over his chest. "He keeps straining his back, and he won't take it easy. Mum and I keep telling him to hire someone to help him out in the game shop, but he keeps insisting he can hold out until I graduate."

"Ah, but what will he do when your new school starts?"

Yuugi opened his mouth to answer, then grinned, absently pushing a stray lock of hair behind his ear. "What about you? Are you going to university?"

"Probably not," he said, waving it off. "I don't like school enough, and it's not like gaming isn't proving to be much of a career."

"You're going to stick with that, then?"

"Yeah. I'm thinking about moving into the casino, though. Or maybe get back into chess. Duel Monsters is showing its age, these days, and you can only keep playing children's' card games for so long before you start to look pathetic," he said, but Yuugi just grinned at him again, absently twisting his upper body in a chiding gesture.

"You've still got a few years left on that."

"Yeah, but how much better would it be to be called a Chess Master by twenty? To do that, I've gotta spend the next year honing my skills, and then the year after that competing to get in the world championships," he pointed out. "I don't really have time to be playing Duel Monsters if I'm going to do that."

"Mm-mm. You've just got to find a chess player with enough skill to challenge you in both areas, so when you get sick of chess, you can take a break and duel," he said, then paused and clicked his fingers. "Hey yeah! I should introduce you to Kaiba-kun! He's a great chess player – he beat his father, and Gozuboro Kaiba-san was supposed to be one of the best players in the world!"

Atemu chuckled, looking off to the side. "Yeah… but that would also mean spending time with Kaiba."

"He's not that bad once you –" Yuugi cut himself off with a grimace. "Well, his little brother's nice! When he wants to be… sometimes…" He trailed off, and scowled when Atemu couldn't help laughing at his discomfort. "Yamino-kun!"

He grinned, but his humour was quickly cut off by a knowing sound of approval, and they both turned to see Otogi walking up the path. He had clearly spent the day out-of-bounds, holding a shopping bag in one hand and a rolled-up magazine in the other. Yuugi immediately blushed, probably remembering what Atemu had told him about their friend, but Atemu had to sigh in irritation.

"Otogi."

"Afternoon, Yamino-kun, Yuugi-kun; am I interrupting?" he asked, waving his magazine between the two of them. "Because if you two were just meeting, then I can go. I saw Jounouch-kun and Honda-kun stalking around on my way here, and I'd kinda like to know why they were looking so weird."

"Oh, no, we were just –" Yuugi paused, blinked, and then gasped. "Gah! They're probably looking for me, I'm so late!"

"Oh, right, sorry," Atemu said, straightening as Yuugi snatched up his bag again. "You were going."

"Mm, sorry about this," he said, hurrying down the steps. He paused at the bottom, and slowly twisted around to give him a hesitant smile. "Um… if I don't see you, uh… we're probably all going swimming tomorrow. You're welcome to join us… if you've got nothing else, or anything…"

Otogi raised his eyebrows, smiling up at Atemu in question, but Atemu ignored him. "Maybe. Sounds good."

"Great… Um, Otogi-kun, which way did you see Jounouch-kun going?"

"Over there, near the third row."

"Thank you so much… see you, Yamino-kun! Bye!" he added over his shoulder, already running in the direction Otogi had pointed. The other two gazed after him for a moment, before Otogi's slow, knowing leer spread past his polite smile and he turned to face Atemu.

"Now that did sound promising," he said, walking up to join Atemu in the doorway. "Nothing like the Yuugi-kun I know, either…"

Atemu stared at him silently for a moment, then pushed off from the door and headed back to the table to start cleaning up.

"Ooh, you're not talking… that's even more promising," Otogi said cheerfully, crouching down to untie his boots. "Now, Yamino-kun, you didn't use your masculine charms to reassert Yuugi-kun's self-confidence, did you?"

"We talked," he said curtly. "That's it."

"That's not what Yuugi-kun looks like after a conversation," he said, raising himself up just enough to give Atemu a look. "No one gets that shy inviting someone to hang out unless there are implications involved. Just talking does not create implications."

"It does if the conversation lasts over five hours," he said smugly, but Otogi scoffed.

"No one is capable of creating that kind of a look by just talking to Yuugi-kun."

"One thing you really should learn to understand, Otogi," he said, putting the teacups on the sink and turning around to lean back on the counter. Otogi raised an eyebrow, and Atemu slid his hands into his pockets, finally managing a self-confident look he hadn't felt capable of in almost four years. "The conversation was with me."

* * *

It wasn't very often that Jounouchi found himself at a loss for words. Usually, if he couldn't come up with something intelligent or meaningful or even remotely related to the topic, he would just insult Honda, and that was usually the end of it.

But this time there was no possible way to insult Honda, because Honda had absolutely nothing to do with what was rendering him speechless. In fact, Honda was just as stunned as he was, and they were both sitting in shocked silence, listening to the unfathomable.

Yuugi Mutou and Atemu Yamino were sitting on the opposite side of the table to them, bluntly and seriously discussing the merits of James Bond over Detective Conan. To Yuugi's left, Anzu was massaging her temples and listening very carefully to Ryou, who was quietly whispering something none of them could hear. To Honda's left, Otogi was staring at Atemu in open disbelief, a sliver of beef halfway to his mouth.

It wasn't just that Yuugi Mutou and Atemu Yamino—polar opposites on the social scale and the two people no one in their year had ever associated with one another—were talking; nor was it that the subject matter included Detective Conan, which seemed downright impossible from Atemu Yamino to even know about, and which was anime, something Yuugi had never had any interest in; it wasn't even that the conversation had been going on for nearly ten minutes and showed no signs of stopping.

It was the image of Yuugi Mutou waving his chopsticks around in emphasis as he pointed out that James Bond had loads of cool weapons, chase scenes, sex, and never once had so much as a hair out of place. And then there was the image of Atemu Yamino leaning his head on two fingers with open exasperation on his face, occasionally interrupting to slap the table and argue that Conan had all of that, still managed to go to _school_, was Japanese, wasn't a manslut, and actually solved crimes. The argument over whether Conan was getting any offscreen was just too mind-boggling to even contemplate.

The discussion paused for a few minutes when Anzu muttered "It starts", prompting a glare from Atemu which was pointedly returned. Otogi managed to drop his cold meat back to his plate before staring around at Jounouchi and Honda, who just gaped back.

After knowing their friends for as long as they had, Jounouchi, Honda and Otogi had formed certain conceptions about Yuugi and Atemu. Although Anzu had told them, in vague passing, that Yuugi had been much more open when he was younger, with a much broader sense of humour, they had never thought they would see it. None of them had ever imagined Atemu could really laugh.

Not even Otogi had guessed there was a real personality under all the hostility, and it was causing a very different reaction to Atemu as a whole. Granted, he was discussing a children's television show and revealing himself to be something of a closeted geek, but it really didn't matter. He was holding himself differently, and Otogi had to admit, it had a certain… sensuality. He had noticed it last night, and could only guess that it was a kind of confidence only Yuugi inspired. He definitely brought out something like confidence in Yuugi, after all.

Jounouchi frowned, putting his chin on his fist as he stared at Yuugi's content smile, and Otogi considered Atemu's attitude.

Yuugi was louder, cracking bad jokes and taking subtle, friendly jabs at his friends' expense. Atemu was even more conceited than usual, took the opportunity to talk, glared a little more sharply, and Otogi couldn't help but notice a strange smile he only ever used when looking at Yuugi.

All in all, they both decided, this development couldn't be an entirely bad thing.

* * *

_**Bit of a fic for you…?**_


	6. First Hit

Chapter Six – **_First Hit_**

**DISCLAIMER**: A guy met a girl at a bar, and she invited him back to her place for the night. When they arrived, they went straight to the bedroom, which was absolutely filled with soft toys. Giant toys on top of the wardrobe, large toys on the bookshelves and windowsills and a lot of smaller toys on the bottom shelf. A little creeped out but too turned on to care, the guy continued on. After the event, all he really cared about was, "So, how was I?"  
"Well," she said thoughtfully, "you can take anything from the bottom shelf."

* * *

"Yuugi. Hey, wake up. Yuugi!"

He grimaced, clenching his eyes shut at the intrusion on his dreams. They had been good dreams – memories from his first year of middle school, when he and Atemu had taken to movies with a previously unknown passion. Yuugi had always loved horror movies, and Atemu had never mentioned it when Yuugi would grab his hand out of shock or fright.

"Open your eyes!"

He rolled over, blindly searching the bedside cabinet for the alarm clock. It was ancient and useless in the dark, but the light assaulting his eyelids told him that didn't matter. The clock told the time and the date, which would tell Yuugi whether he needed to care about the person hissing at him.

"Yuugi…"

Seven fifty-three on a Friday. No, he didn't need to care. Yesterday had been a day that could only be described as wonderful, with Atemu joining their group with only a few, very small, problems. The others hadn't taken to him at first, but after lunch, Jounouchi had come around, and Honda followed. Atemu wasn't acting like Yuugi thought he should, and it really didn't feel like the friendship they'd had, but it was still amazing to have him back in any form. He'd forgotten how much fun it was to down cry anime for no reason other than Atemu liked it.

So he was content still living in yesterday – there was no reason to greet a new day that probably wouldn't be the same.

"Yuugi!"

"Yuug', for the love of my pillow, wake up and make the noise stop," Jounouchi's voice groaned, and Yuugi moaned in reply, rolling onto his back.

It took a few tries, but he eventually managed to coax his eyes open a crack, and then far enough for him to lift his head and look at the door. It was still shut tight. He frowned, then looked over at Jounouchi, who had already begun snoring again. He slowly twisted around, squinting through the painful light to the window, which was wide open, with Atemu Yamino leaning through and smiling at him.

Yuugi blinked at him blearily for several moments, then shifted up the bed until he was close enough to smell Atemu's aftershave. "Are you real?" he whispered hoarsely, and Atemu smirked.

"And you used to say I was a heavy sleeper. Come on, I'm finished roll for the morning. Let's get breakfast."

"It's not even eight o'clock," he said weakly, staring at him. "This may be a school trip, but it's still a holiday. There is no eight in the morning on a holiday."

"Which is why you've never had a hot meal for breakfast at this resort. Go, get dressed," he said, waving insistently. "We've got stuff to do today."

"Can't," he mumbled, raising both hands to rub his face. "I'm supposed to be doing camera duty today."

"Forget it; you're with me."

Yuugi lowered his hand just enough to frown at him with his eyes, and Atemu leaned back a little in the hesitating manner he had been falling in and out of for the past two days. For a moment, they just gazed at one another, before Atemu hefted himself back into the window with a small smirk.

"Bring the camera with you. I want to explore the grounds around the resort. I bet we'll see some wildlife you can take photos of."

Yuugi lowered his hands, tilting his head back in thought. "Mm…"

"Good. Now, get dressed, the best breakfast's always gone by eight thirty," he said decisively, and then quickly ended the discussion by dropping from the window and out of sight.

* * *

Despite all its growth and technological advancement, there were still many areas of Japan that remained untouched by the pressures of modern culture. There were tiny villages where women wore full-length kimonos every day; whole towns without a single car in their borders; houses where the nearest telephone was three kilometres away in a pokey little post office that doubled as a police station.

Luckily, this was not one of those towns.

Atemu smirked as a girl easily six years younger than him waltzed past, her silver platforms giving her an easy inch over his full height, her hotpants flapping loosely in the breeze and her lip gloss thick enough that sticky slivers of gloss came away as she talked into her mobile phone. Yuugi grimaced at Atemu's amusement, but wasn't given the time to dwell on it before Atemu snatched up his hand and began pulling him toward a shopping complex.

"So, Yamino-kun," Yuugi began dryly, not even bothering to resist Atemu's lead. "Exactly what kind of wildlife did you plan on seeing on this walk?"

"By twelve? Birds. Commonly known as the Roasted Chicken," he deadpanned. "Preferably nesting on a warm bed of chips and gravy."

"Oh, of course. You'd never find something like that on the streets of Domino," he muttered, and Atemu flashed him one of his quick grins that were always gone before most people could notice them. Yuugi sighed, smiling despite himself. "You do remember the teachers told us not to leave the resort grounds, right?"

Atemu didn't bother to answer that, and Yuugi rolled his eyes up to the heavens, biting his lip to keep from laughing. It was just like when they were little, when they got bored hanging around the game shop. They would begin with an expedition to map out the alley behind the house, which would—purely for the sake of cartography—expand into the streets around the store, and then the whole block, until they were lost in the back streets of Domino's small business district. Yuugi would never notice how far they were getting from home until Atemu would suddenly look up and wonder where they were. Only this time Yuugi had the distinct impression Atemu had intended to get 'lost'.

"But it seems like everyone's been doing it," Yuugi commented as he glanced around, half expecting someone he recognised to materialise out of the crowd. "Ryou-kun said Bakura-kun's here almost every day."

"Yeah. But if you want to go back…" He trailed off, eyeing him over his shoulder again, but Yuugi smiled and shook his head.

"Mm-mm. It's okay. As long as we're back before four – I'm supposed to give Ryou-kun the camera, then," he said, then paused, glancing around again. "But if we could do what you wanted and go, that'd be good. Just, y'know… if one of the teachers sees us…"

"It'll be fine," he said warmly, giving Yuugi's hand a quick squeeze. "The teachers are supposed to be chaperoning, remember? If they catch us, we catch them."

"Yeah, but –"

"Trust me."

Yuugi opened his mouth, then closed it again. There were quite a few things he could say to that, but there were very few that he ever actually would say, and none that he really wanted to. He didn't exactly trust Atemu yet—as good an excuse as it was, four years did not go away just because Atemu apologised and spent a few days with him—but he did like spending this time with him. He didn't want to screw it up with a nasty comment.

It didn't take long before Atemu had managed to hunt down a magazine store and pick up one of his weekly manga fixes, and he raised an eyebrow at Yuugi's look. "What?"

"No one ever believes Anzu when she calls you a comic geek. It wasn't exactly a secret when we were younger, but no one seems to know about it any more," he pointed out, absently picking up a gaming magazine to flip through. "I just find it a little strange."

"That I still like manga and anime or that no one knows?"

Yuugi frowned as Atemu motioned to both their magazines when paying the sales assistant, but the look he got in return kept him silent until the magazines were bagged and they had turned back into the larger complex. "I find it a little odd that you're so… You're just not what people think you're like."

He smiled, glancing at him sideways. "And what do people think I'm like?"

"I dunno," he said quickly, and Atemu smirked. He sighed and shrugged, shoving his hands into his pockets and pointedly focussing his gaze on the shop windows they were passing. "Everyone thinks you get into fights all the time. That you don't care what anyone thinks of you, and you just tell it like it is. That you wouldn't do anything that isn't the epitome of cool."

Atemu chuckled, slipping his hands into his own pockets, the magazines tucked under one arm. "Who says I'm not those things?"

"You're _not_, though," said Yuugi. "You're… you watch Detective Conan, of all things!"

"I don't, actually," he said, then paused and smirked. "I just think James Bond is ridiculous."

"That doesn't change the fact that you're an anime fan," he pointed out. "And the other stuff's just weird. You're not the type to beat people up the way people say you do. I heard one story about you almost strangling a guy by hooking him onto the flag pole and hoisting him to half-mast!"

He frowned, leaning back at the thought. He could vaguely remember where that one had come from – an idiot hall monitor that had been a senior when they were in first year and decided Yuugi made a good target for 'protection money'. What he had actually done was mostly accidental: they had fought for a little bit, gotten tangled in some rope around the flagpole, and then Atemu had kicked the pulley mechanism. He had thought it would just bring the flag down on top of the hall monitor and give him some cover to knock him out; he had no idea the moron was tied up in the pulley chain as well as the rope. It hadn't been what he'd intended, but it did the trick well enough.

"You're so… you're nice," Yuugi finished lamely. It clearly hadn't been what he'd intended to say, and Atemu raised his eyebrow, but Yuugi just scrunched up his nose and turned away. "You're almost the person I remember, and that's nothing like what you're supposed to be."

"Now that," he said firmly, "is an interesting observation. Because you are also nothing like what you're supposed to be."

Yuugi glanced at him curiously, but he only smirked and gestured to a computer trading store. "You still have that Nintendo I could never drag you away from?"

* * *

The day continued in a comfortable, but still slightly strange mood that Yuugi couldn't quite place. They walked around the shopping complex and then the surrounding town, explored the park and found a good place to sit and relax. By noon, Yuugi was lying under their chosen tree with his eyelids at half-mast, waiting for Atemu to return with their lunch.

Despite how much he was enjoying himself, Yuugi had to admit he was a little confused. Spending time with Atemu was like nothing he'd ever experienced. It was comfortable and fun, but nothing like the old friendship they'd had when they were younger. It was too careful – joking insults and cheap shots they would have once traded were avoided, and not just because they didn't want to screw it up. Cautious conversation was something he knew well – he and Jounouchi had communicated that way for almost three months before relaxing into their current relationship. But this wasn't like that.

There was a whole different mood, with Atemu.

It was all little things. Like when Atemu would pause and give him that special smile, something shifted in Yuugi's stomach that had nothing to do with nerves. They would step or lean too close to each other, and then pull back with glances that felt like they should have been apologetic, but weren't. He found himself drifting closer and closer as they walked, until their arms were constantly brushing against each other. And Atemu's voice had slowly changed to a tone Yuugi had never heard before, but kind of knew he was unconsciously mimicking. It was slower and deeper, somehow matching their increasingly close proximity.

It was really weird. Nice, but still… really, really weird.

There were little things he couldn't get out of his head now, too. Memories from when they were fourteen; little instances when Atemu would suddenly stop and stare at him, or moments when they would invade each others' personal space and not immediately move. He was starting to remember strange things, like the smell of Atemu's pillows, and the texture of his doujinshi. He absently wondered if Atemu still used that terrible shampoo that always made his hair smell like sandalwood.

"Well, look at this. What're you doing out here, Underclassman Yuugi?"

He blinked and pushed himself up onto his elbows, frowning at the new voice. It belonged to one of his former classmates – a kendo star that thought his abilities with a bokken meant he could order other people around. He had an extremely defensive ego, and the insulting habit of calling anyone shorter than him 'underclassman'. Up until halfway through second year, he'd been preening himself as master of the school, but then one day he'd come to school with a sprained wrist and just stopped. But now he was standing by a large bush a few metres away, flanked by two of his teammates. He looked as arrogant and self-assured as he ever had.

"Mijuk-kun," Yuugi greeted, shifting up to a sitting position.

"You know this whole area's out of bounds, Yuugi," he said, smirking. "You trying to get yourself in trouble, here?"

"Um… you're here too," he pointed out quietly, but Mijuku just waved it off.

"We have business here. We're out looking for troublemakers that leave the resort despite instructions not to," he said imperiously, and Yuugi frowned. Somehow he doubted that, but Mijuku didn't give him time to question it. "So, Underclassman Yuugi, give me a reason why I shouldn't report you to Teacher Yamaguchi."

"Um…"

"You're right; there's no good reason for you to be out here," he said loudly, and walked over to lean over him. "So I think you should maybe not even try to explain yourself. It'll be much easier for me to make one up for you."

"Um –"

"So here's the deal," he said, holding out his hand in offering. "You give me, oh, I dunno… about five thousand yen, and I'll just forget I saw you, okay?"

Yuugi furrowed his brow, looking up at him and then around at the other two. All three of them were smirking, apparently not even caring about the issue of them being there to see him in the first place. He opened his mouth to answer, but Mijuku cut him off before he could start.

"Why are you here, anyway? Surely you didn't come alone… Those stupid friends of yours hiding somewhere? You come with them?"

"No," a darker, smoother voice said quietly, and they all turned toward it. Atemu was standing in the shadows of the bush behind Mijuku's friends, his arms folded and a carefully even expression on his face. "He came here with me."

Mijuku straightened up, staring at him blankly, and Atemu tilted his head slightly, raising his eyebrows. "Is there a problem, Mijuku?"

"Yamino… you… We weren't –"

"You wouldn't be trying to blackmail my friend, would you?" he asked quietly, stepping out of the shadows and yet somehow managing to look all the more dangerous in the light. "You said you wouldn't blackmail anyone after that talk we had last year. You wouldn't be going back on your word, would you?"

He swallowed hard, then managed a small smile and shook his head. "Of course not! Yuugi and I were just having a little talk."

"I think you've finished your talk," he murmured, and Mijuku quickly nodded.

"We have. We'll just… go," he said haltingly, jerking his finger past his arm in a ragged point. "So um… later then, Yuugi."

He blinked in response, watching in surprised silence as Mijuku hurriedly motioned to his friends and led a rapid retreat out of the clearing. Atemu waited for them to be completely gone before smiling down at Yuugi and holding out a plastic bag.

"Chicken and chips, just like I promised."

Yuugi managed a small smile as Atemu sat down beside him, but soon frowned as he looked in the direction Mijuku had gone. "What was that?"

"Hm?"

"You scared him off without even trying," he said, slowly turning back to watch Atemu unpack the bag. "You just talked, and he just ran for the hills. How'd you do that?"

"Like I said: we had a talk last year," he said evasively. "He knows better than to mess with people like that."

"Yamino-kun…?"

He avoided his gaze for a moment, shifting down until he was lying back on one elbow, twirling his fork through his fingers. Yuugi frowned, and he sighed, stabbing his food in a jerky movement. "I… did more than talk to him, last year. But that's not the point – the point is that he stopped thinking he could get away with anything he liked."

"You beat him up?"

"No," said Atemu, barking out a quick laugh. "No, no… I couldn't beat up a kendo-ka. I would've been expelled."

Yuugi stared, and he shrugged, stabbing another chip despite not having eaten the first one. "I just… twisted his arm a little."

"Yamino-kun…"

He shovelled the two chips and another forkful into his mouth, making sure to keep his eyes on his lunch. Yuugi just stared at him for what felt like ages, before he picked up his own lunch and started shifting through it with his fork.

"You do that a lot?"

"Hm?"

"Do you often talk to people that deserve it?" he clarified quietly, keeping his own eyes lowered even when Atemu gave him a quick glance.

"If they deserve it," he muttered. "It's the only way to get through to some people."

Yuugi pursed his lips, but didn't say anything for a minute, quietly digging into his food. "Guess those ninja classes aren't just to stay in shape, then, huh?"

"Hm."

"So…" Yuugi paused, shifting some of his chicken into the gravy and out again. "So does this mean the rumours are true? You really do get into fights all the time?"

Atemu grimaced, drawing patterns in his gravy rather than answer. After Yuugi made it clear he wasn't going to let the subject go, he eventually put down his fork and looked up, brow furrowed. "I used to. In first year I hurt a lot of people. They always deserved it," he added, but Yuugi's frown didn't shift.

"How'd you judge who deserved it?"

"I only hurt the guys that hurt y— other people," he said haltingly, and lowered his eyes back to his meal. "And the rumours were always a lot worse than the fights. I never really hurt anyone – didn't have to. Most of the time they just realised there was someone who wasn't going to take what they were doing and ran off. Like Mijuku. I just talked to him after class one day – one twist of his arm and he was apologising for everything."

Yuugi gazed at him quietly for a minute, then looked back down at his food as well. "You know, the week before Mijuk-kun sprained his wrist, he'd been trying to make me and my friends pay 'class fees' that didn't exist. Everyone thought Jounouch-kun was the one that hurt him." He paused, but when Atemu didn't comment, he continued. "That happens a lot. People that do things to me often suddenly stop, and sometimes they come to school with bruises, or someone will find them locked in a cupboard, or something… My friends get blamed for a lot of things I know they didn't do."

Atemu didn't answer, and they sat in silence, avoiding each other's gaze, before Yuugi suddenly smiled and reached over to touch Atemu's shoulder. "It doesn't happen much any more, but… I still hope it won't happen again."

He nodded, looking up from under his eyebrows, and Yuugi smiled, taking the silent agreement for what it was. "Thanks."

Atemu smiled, pressing his hand over Yuugi's on his shoulder, then went back to his meal. "So does Jounouchi get in a lot of fights, these days?"

"Oh, not really," he said, grinning at the abrupt shift. "Just with Honda-kun and Bakura-kun, usually. Nothing really bad. There's no reason, these days. 'Always gotta have a reason', he says."

"He fights with Bakura a lot?" he asked, raising his eyebrows. "My level of respect for him just went up about three notches."

He laughed, shaking his head. "Bakura-kun just likes to get on people's nerves, and Jounouch-kun doesn't have a lot of patience. Usually Ryou-kun's there to intervene, but sometimes you can't stop it."

"Hm… Hey, did Ryou ever talk to you about me?" he asked, and Yuugi raised his eyebrows in question, not understanding. "I only ask because he talked to me a couple of times, and Mazaki said that he figured out my preferences from pretty much day one. I just wondered if he'd talked to you; I wondered if that was why you finally did listen to me."

"No… Well, I did tell him I was going to talk to you, and he nodded like he knew something," He paused, considering the memory for a moment. "Matter of fact, he did tell me to take it slow, but he says that about a lot of things."

"He's a strange one," Atemu said quietly, and Yuugi winced but had to nod.

"Mm. But he's really nice once you get to know him, and great to talk to about stuff," he said, then paused again and frowned. "But sometimes he just _knows _things… it can be a little… freaky."

"Yeah. The first time he talked to me, he just gave me this look, and told me to be careful about you. And I could tell it wasn't a threat, or a warning, so much as –"

"Advice," finished Yuugi, nodding. "Mm, he kind of does that a lot. Maybe he thought it was a good idea for us to start talking again."

"Maybe," he agreed slowly. "But I don't know. It feels like more than that."

Yuugi paused, his hand absently rising to touch his necklace for a moment. He could sense Atemu watching the movement, but as soon as he looked around, Atemu's eyes were fixed on his lunch. It was a little strange, and Yuugi curled his fingers further around the chain out of nerves.

"Whatever the reason," Atemu continued quietly, his eyes flicking up from under his brows to meet Yuugi's gaze, "I'm glad he didn't tell you to stay away from me."

"Why would he do that?" he asked blankly, he confusion only mounting as Atemu's gaze shifted into an oddly gentle look.

"Because maybe you really do need protection from me."

* * *

The restaurant and courtyard were already being set up for the dance by the time they returned to the resort, and so Yuugi took several pictures of the preparations as they headed back to his cabin. Jounouchi and Honda were sitting on the porch railing when they finally arrived, watching their classmates hurry around with streamers and lanterns.

"Hey Yuugi! Yamino," Jounouchi greeted, as they stepped into normal talking distance. "Where've you guys been?"

"We went into town," Yuugi said quietly, and the other two grinned.

"Watch out, Yuugi, Yamino's turning you into a delinquent!" joked Honda. "Next you'll be swearing and staying out after dark!"

"Oh, shut up," Yuugi snapped half-heartedly, even as a bright blush spread over his cheeks. The others snickered, and he folded his arms, pointedly changing the subject. "So where're the others?"

"Bakura I dunno about, but the other two're inside," Honda said, jerking his thumb over his shoulder.

"Anzu found out you went out with Yamino and freaked," added Jounouchi. "She dragged Ryou into his bedroom and we haven't seen either of them since."

Atemu frowned, setting a hand on his hip in confusion. "What's her problem?"

Jounouchi shrugged. "She doesn't like you, man."

"Mmyeah, I dunno… She was kinda okay with him yesterday," Honda said slowly, frowning. "I dunno, y'know. I kinda reckon she thinks he might turn Yuugi into a delinquent."

Atemu sighed, watching Yuugi's concerned expression from the corner of his eye. There were a few possibilities for Anzu to think she had to be worried about, the least of which was him changing Yuugi for the worse, again. Knowing her, she probably thought he was going to take Yuugi away from the group, or revert to his twelve-year-old self's possessive streak.

Really, he just needed to sit Mazaki down and have a talk with her – point out that he knew Yuugi was straight and therefore Atemu couldn't get everything he wanted from him, and so Yuugi wouldn't be leaving her for him.

Even if Yuugi had been giving him those looks and that tone of voice all day.

But even while he thought of all that, a fairly large part of him still wanted to tie Yuugi up and keep him for his own. Since he couldn't literally do that, making Anzu think he could almost made up for it.

Yuugi hesitated, glancing at him for a moment, his own thoughts lost behind his eyes, before he smiled and shrugged it off. "I'm sure she'll get over it. Just tell Ryou-kun I've still got the camera, okay? Yamino-kun and I were going to get some more photos of the preparations."

"You two could come along if you like," Atemu offered, a small smile forcing its way over his lips at the dazzling grin Yuugi gave him for the invitation. "We were gonna play cards or something after."

"Yeah, sure, that sounds good." Honda slipped off the railing, though Jounouchi hesitated an extra moment before following, shooting Atemu a meaningful look, who caught the hint. They waited until the others probably wouldn't hear a quiet conversation before following, and Jounouchi put his hands in his pockets, eyeing Atemu sideways.

"You don't like me as much as you're pretending to, do you?" Atemu began quietly, smirking as he looked up at him from under his eyebrows. He knew this whole adaptation thing had gone too well to be true.

"You make him act different," Jounouchi said, his tone dead and expression neutral. "He's doing stuff he wouldn't normally do."

"Such as…?"

"Like just then. Normally he would've been straight in there to check Anzu was okay. He wouldn't have gone this morning without a note. He wouldn't have even left the resort grounds," he pointed out, and then raised his eyes up to look at Yuugi again, a worried frown breaking past his expressionless barrier. "They're not… bad things, so I'm not gonna tell y'to back off, but… they're not the Yuugi I know. And it's only been a couple of days since he didn't even want to talk about you."

Atemu nodded, turning his gaze back to Yuugi as well. "Yeah, I'm a little confused by that one, too."

They managed three steps before Jounouchi suddenly stopped, snatching Atemu's elbow and spinning him around to face him. Atemu raised his eyebrows, no longer concerned but still a little apprehensive of Jounouchi's protective strength. But Jounouchi looked more worried than dangerous, and he kept glancing over Atemu's shoulder to Yuugi, even as he spoke. "I just – I need to know that you're not – What do you want from him?" he asked quietly. "I mean… I don't know what happened back in middle school, but Anzu says it changed him, and here you are and I can _see _you changing him and… I need to know what you're doing, Yamino."

What he was doing? Atemu frowned, staring up at him for a few moments before he found himself turning to watch Yuugi take a photo of the decorated well. He was… spending time with Yuugi. Trying to get his friend back.

He knew he wasn't really succeeding in getting his old friend back – Yuugi had changed and so had he. The mood and emotions were all wrong; he knew there was something different about what was happening when they talked. It wasn't all just him losing himself to his more flirtatious side, either. A lot of it was Yuugi. But that couldn't mean what he wanted it to. He didn't know what was going on.

"He's important to me, Jounouchi," he heard himself say, before slowly turning back to gauge Jounouchi's reaction. "I want to spend time with him. I don't want him to change."

"So why's he acting like this?" he demanded quietly. "Why're you acting different than you're supposed to? What's going on with you two?"

He could only shrug, shaking his head in a small, resigned movement. He really had absolutely no idea.

* * *

The issue was still on his mind when the dance started, and only got worse as it went on.

Despite all her claims to the contrary, Anzu was an amazing dancer, and not only in skill – she managed to get every single one of her friends to dance with her at least once. Or, at least everyone except Bakura, who Ryou dragged away by the collar before he and Anzu could really start.

Atemu had been actually socialising for most of the dance, Yuugi's presence inspiring what Otogi called the 'anti-Yamino' – a slightly more talkative and much more accessible version of himself. But as soon as Anzu pulled Yuugi onto the dance floor, the old jealousy set in, and he found himself unconsciously retreating to lean back against the wall.

He didn't have the right, but he couldn't help but hate Anzu a little when she song switched to something with a slow, steady beat. She got to pull Yuugi close, her hands sliding over his shoulders and against his back. He felt the muscles around his left eye clench a little when an almost-spin ended in a return that pushed their bodies together for an instant. He tried to remind himself that he wasn't allowed to be offended or lonely or jealous in any way when Yuugi's hands slipped on Anzu's waist until they were resting on her hips.

Just because they had spent a few days together, and the morning alone; just because Yuugi had smiled at him like that; just because he had touched Yuugi's hand a few times and not been brushed away… That didn't give him the right to start glancing at the clock and wonder just how long 'just friends' could dance for before it got weird.

"Ryou, picture, come on!"

The demand was close enough to be classed as a distraction, and he forced his eyes away from Anzu's arm on Yuugi's spine to see Ryou being accosted by a guy he knew by face and not name. He had a girl hanging off his shoulder, smiling up at him like he was made of gold. It would be a terrible but classic dance-photograph, but the demand apparently included a 'make us look good or else', because Ryou took several pictures before the pair disappeared again. He looked down at his camera once they were gone, then looked up to meet Atemu's gaze. He smiled, rolling his eyes, and Atemu shook his head, turning back to Yuugi and Anzu.

The unreasonable jealousy had returned to despise the fact Anzu wasn't wearing heels, meaning they didn't look ridiculous dancing together. If Yuugi had been a little more feminine and Anzu a little more of a tomboy, he could have put his head on her shoulder. Anzu would have liked that. Perfect little heterosexual—

"When Anzu-chan said 'one dance', it really implied only one song, didn't it?"

He inwardly flinched, and looked around to find Ryou standing beside him, his camera up but gaze firmly set on Yuugi and Anzu. He had a small smile on his lips, and Atemu's unreasonable jealousy decided he hated Ryou too. He was probably _happy _for them.

"Makes you wonder just how long friends should be able to dance for," he continued casually, his smile broadening at Atemu's irritated grunt. He stepped back and turned to face him, tilting his head in that strange, knowing look of his. "I don't like organised dances, myself. Teachers and chaperones don't really approve of same-sex dancing partners unless they personally encourage it."

"Would you anyway?"

"I don't know if I could get him to," he said. "He only agreed to dance with Anzu-chan because he knew I wouldn't like it."

He smirked, trying to focus on Ryou's attempt at conversation, but his eyes kept sliding back to the dance floor. Ryou didn't seem to mind, however, and instead joined him against the wall, leaning his weight toward Atemu as he lowered his voice.

"Jounouch-kun and Honda-kun are worried about how Yuugi-kun's been acting lately, but I don't think it's anything to be concerned about, do you?"

"It might be," he murmured, his concerns from the day warring with suppressed jealousy. "It's only since I talked to him… maybe he's changing who he is to try and make me happy. He does have a tendency to hide what he's really thinking."

"He does… but I don't think it's like that," Ryou said, looking at him from the corner of his eye. "Sometimes certain people can bring out who we truly are on the inside. Make us stop caring about what is perceived as 'normal' or 'correct'. I think that's one form of connection. A person that can do that is someone very special indeed."

He shook his head, his shoulders barely slumping. "I'm not special. Especially not to Yuugi."

"Well, you do bring out several facets of his personality that no one else does," he argued, suddenly straightening up with his hand on his hip. "Yuugi-kun doesn't dislike anyone, but he had himself convinced he hated you."

Atemu swallowed, lowering his gaze, but Ryou's soft smile was still strong as he murmured, "It's much easier to convince yourself you hate them than deal with the fact someone you truly care about hates you. Love and hatred are so closely linked." He paused, allowing that to sink in before he laughed. "In first year, I thought for sure Bakura despised me, right up until the exact moment I realised he was kissing me. It took me months to realise that insulting me was his way of showing me he cared; that he worried about me. I didn't realise that the first few months, when he kept glaring at me or avoiding spending time in even the same room as me, that he was really just trying to keep me at a distance, because he couldn't believe I would ever feel the same as he did about me."

Atemu hesitated, then turned his head to scowl at him face on. "Is this some kind of 'I know something Yuugi doesn't' game?"

"In a way," he admitted, then suddenly twirled around with his hands behind his back and leaned forward, all smiles gone. "Yuugi-kun is one of those people that just accepts everything people do. He still doesn't think Jounouch-kun and Honda-kun were bullying him in first year. Last year, our friend Mai Kujaku-san used him to make Jounouch-kun jealous, and Yuugi-kun just went along with it because he didn't realise she was doing anything but being nice to him. He went on a rather obvious date with her and never knew."

"If you don't say what you're trying to tell me right now, I'm walking away," Atemu said bluntly, and Ryou nodded, tilting his head forward.

"It's never occurred to Yuugi-kun that he could look at boys the way we do. It's never occurred to him that he could be flirting with you. And I daresay that if anything happened to make him realise it, it wouldn't occur to him to react as you or I might. He might not even think anything of it unless someone else did." He hesitated, then took another step forward, the odd, cautioning look back in his eyes with an edge of warning. "We go home tomorrow afternoon, Yamino-kun. You might want to think about what you really want to take with you."

Atemu's brow furrowed, and Ryou stepped back, lifting his camera up to his chest like a shield. They just stared at each other for several long seconds before Atemu was suddenly knocked off balance by Otogi jumping against his side.

"Yo, Yamino!" called Honda, and Otogi pulled back enough for Atemu to realise the whole group—Yuugi and Anzu included—were walking up to them. Bakura wrapped his arms around Ryou's shoulders, but the possessive gesture was rendered pointless by Honda stepping into Atemu's line of sight. "We're all thinking it's too hot and crowded and boring in here, since the music's gone all 'couply'."

"So, if Ryou's got all his pictures for the night, we're thinking we're gonna head down to the beach," said Jounouchi, shooting a questioning glance at Ryou.

"You'll come too, right?" asked Yuugi, and Atemu grimaced, staring around at the whole group. While Yuugi looked expectant, both Jounouchi and Anzu had levelled him with painfully even looks, and would apparently cast judgement on him based on every move he made from here on out. Honda seemed to be welcoming him into the group well enough, Bakura didn't much care as long as he kept his hands off Ryou, and Otogi was happy so long as he got to annoy people and watch the fallout. He glanced at Ryou, but the look from before was gone as he snuggled into Bakura's hold. No real threats.

He smiled at Yuugi, nodding his head once. "Let's go."

* * *

Atemu had been acting weird all night.

Well, Yuugi corrected himself absently, weirder than what he was beginning to suspect was normal. He had been fairly introspective all afternoon, and gotten increasingly quiet as the dance went on. When he had been dancing with Anzu, Yuugi had noticed him glaring at some vacant space in front of him, tapping his fingers against his bicep like he was upset about something.

Now they were all walking up to the headland, but Atemu had been lagging behind at the back, his head bowed as he walked along in silence. Yuugi had fallen back to join him, but he still hadn't said a word. His eyes were half closed, shifting along the ground in search of something only he knew, so Yuugi knew he couldn't be angry. Atemu would always keep his eyes straight and sharp when he was mad.

"Are you okay?" he asked quietly, but Atemu only glanced at him once in reply. Yuugi frowned, leaning forward to look up at his face. "Did something happen? Jounouch-kun and the others didn't do anything weird, did they?"

He smiled, shaking his head, and Yuugi bit his lip. "Did I do something?"

"No, Yuugi," He sighed and shook his head again. "It's nothing you need to worry about, alright?"

He pursed his lips, then stopped and grabbed Atemu's arm to keep him from moving forward. Atemu raised his eyebrows in surprise, but Yuugi hadn't even opened his mouth to speak before the others noticed they'd stopped.

"Hey, Yuugi, what's up?" called Jounouchi, turning around to look at them properly. "Why'd you stop?"

"We're fine! Just gotta talk for a second," he said, waving them off. "We'll catch up to you in a minute!"

"Nnnokay," Jounouchi said slowly, his frown clear even in the dark shadows of the trees around them. "We're gonna head up to the peak. Meet us there, okay?"

"Right," he said, and then planted both hands on Atemu's back and shoved him off the path. He followed after, but waited until they could hear the others moving on before saying anything. "If there's something wrong, I want to help."

"It's really nothing you should worry about."

"Atemu…!"

He didn't notice he'd said it at first. He had been referring to Atemu by given name in his thoughts for a while now, without even thinking about it, but he'd always made sure to refer to him by family name only, after their break up. It wasn't until Atemu flinched and stared at him that he realised he'd slipped, and he immediately leaned back. "I mean – um –"

"I…" Atemu hesitated, then smiled, shrugging one shoulder. "I'd like it if you called me that."

"I – I um…" Yuugi stammered, licking his lips. "It's not really – I mean… are you sure…?"

"Yeah."

He swallowed, then smiled, stepping past him with a quick gesture to show they should keep walking away from the path. "I really do want to know what's bothering you. I don't want – you shouldn't have to keep things to yourself."

"I'm a little more mature than back then," he said quietly, but his smile was forced, and Yuugi scowled at him.

"It's only because of Otogi-kun that you started talking to me," he pointed out, and Atemu huffed out a broken laugh in self-depreciation.

"Still…" He left it at that, and they fell silent until they had stepped out of the trees, onto a little ledge that hung out over a particularly rocky part of shoreline. Atemu hesitated, then sat down with a heavy thump, letting the last of his nervous laughter out in the movement. "You're right, in a way. I suppose I'm just worried that we'll go back home and everything will be different."

Yuugi frowned, slowly crouching down beside him. "Why?"

"Because things are always different on vacation," he said simply. "You aren't in a natural environment – you do things you wouldn't normally do. People you talk to, emotions you feel, impulses… they're all different to what happens at home."

Yuugi blinked, staring at him blankly for a moment. He supposed, in all truth, he never would have stopped and made a point of trying to talk to Atemu when he was at home – there would have been other things he could tell himself he needed to do. Maybe Atemu wouldn't have told him the truth if they were at school, where teachers or other students could hear. He grimaced, lowering himself to the ground proper. "But that doesn't mean it's going to change. Now I know what I do, and… and I… I like you, Ate- Ya- Nngn… Going home isn't going to change it."

"It might," he said, then groaned as he slumped back so he was lying down, one foot hanging off the edge and his arms pillowing his head. He stared up at the sky for a moment, frowning thoughtfully. "Grandfather Sugoroku… your mother… Jounouchi and the others… they might see a few problems with us and… they'll comment. You'll come to your senses. We won't –"

Yuugi cut him off by leaning over him, eyebrows raised and a pointed look on his face. He knew most of it was lost in the darkness, but some of it must have gotten through to Atemu, because he stopped talking very suddenly.

"What do you mean, 'come to my senses'? I haven't taken leave of them!"

"Yuugi…"

"Honestly, and people say _I _talk myself down!" he cried, staring at him. "You were thirteen and had an embarrassing dream! I don't blame you for getting freaked out – I can never look Anzu in the eye after I've had one of those dreams, even when she had absolutely nothing to do with it! It's stupid, but I almost think she can tell what I've been dreaming about and she'll slap me."

Atemu smiled, and Yuugi rolled his eyes, leaning on one hand to give him another pointed look. "And I hate to say it, but what you did was… pretty typical of you. If you have one huge fault, it's that you – well, you kind of avoid bad situations. Sure, you'll deal with them eventually, but if you think you can get out of them, you do. And you don't like it when people try to force you to deal with stuff," he said, and then looked away, one side of his mouth pulling back in a slight grimace. "I don't like it, but I can kinda understand why you started avoiding me. And I wouldn't have stayed away if you hadn't been mean about it."

"Understanding isn't the same as forgiveness."

"Do you want me to forgive you?" he asked, turning back to look at him again. "If that's what's wrong, you should know I'm not angry at you. I never… I never really was, you know."

"But you don't forgive me," he pointed out, and Yuugi frowned.

"I don't see what –"

"If you forgive me," he said loudly, pushing himself up onto his elbows, "then you know I screwed up. No one will have to convince you and make you realise how mad you are. When we go home, and you tell Grandfather Sugoroku that you hung around with me on the summer trip, he won't be able to tell you that you should hate me, and you won't realise that you do. If you forgive me, you'll know that you have every reason to hate me, and that you don't."

Yuugi stared at him for a long moment, not even noticing how close Atemu's movement had brought them. There were only a few centimetres of space between them, and he was vaguely aware he could feel Atemu's breath on his chin; almost taste the food he had eaten.

But none of that mattered, because he was almost lost in Atemu's expression. He was really worried about this. He really did think they would go home and never talk to each other again.

He smiled, lifting his free hand and reaching over Atemu's waist to curl his fingers around Atemu's hand. "I know that you made a mistake. I know that you wish you'd never done it. I know that you're sorry. And I want you to understand that I am not and am not going to be mad at you. Ever."

Atemu blinked at him, and he shifted, turning around so he was actually facing Atemu rather than having twist as he was. He made sure his hand stayed on Atemu's, reassuring him that he wasn't getting up to leave.

"Listen, I may have told myself I was mad at you these last few years, but it was really just because I didn't know how else to deal with you leaving," he said, and Atemu opened his mouth as if to answer, but Yuugi made sure to hurry on before he could. "But that's not the reason I think it was probably a good thing we had a few years apart. You and I spent so much time together… we never let anyone else in. But – but now I have Jounouch-kun and the others, and you have Otogi-kun, and I think… I think we're better people for it, you and me."

"Better people?"

"Mm. We didn't have any really good friends before, because we were so worried about other people trying to split us up," he pointed out. "But now we know how to have other friends – we know that getting close to other people isn't going to be the end of who we really are."

Atemu stared at him blankly for several long seconds, and Yuugi narrowed his eyes in as warm a smile as he could manage, curling his fingers further around Atemu's hand. "I think it's made us better people… better friends to others… it might even have been good for us as a pair."

"How so?"

"Because before we'd been together so long, sometimes I kind of wondered if maybe you only hung around me because it was a habit, or maybe you thought I was the only friend you could have. I thought that maybe if we ever met other people, then we wouldn't like each other as much," he said softly, glancing off to the side with a slight blush. "But now, even after almost four years apart, you still want to spend time with me. You still like me as much as you used to."

Atemu smiled, lifting his free hand to trail the back of his fingers over Yuugi's cheek. It was a strange movement, one Yuugi had never experienced before, but it felt kind of nice. The skin his hand touched suddenly felt much more sensitive, to the point that Yuugi could feel the weight of the sea air against his cheek. Atemu's palm came to rest on his jaw, but his thumb continued to move over Yuugi's cheekbone, and although he could vaguely remember his parents doing the same thing when he was little, it felt nothing like that. This was warm and comforting and strangely intimate in a way Yuugi wasn't sure he knew how to handle.

He had no idea why he was blushing, or why part of him felt the need to scramble backward, or why the rest of him was screaming to lean forward. His throat was getting kind of dry, too. Like he needed to swallow. But he couldn't, because his tongue was in the way. His lips were tingling with the sand and wind, but he fought the need to wet them. He didn't know why his body was feeling so weird, but he really didn't want to move. Atemu's eyes seemed darker and heavier than usual, and for the first time in what had to be ten years, Yuugi was suddenly struck by how pretty they were. But it wasn't a casual observation this time, or a joke about how Atemu was an albino rabbit in his past life. They were blood red, deep and sturdy and… so, so beautiful…

"And what about you?" Atemu murmured, pushing himself up until Yuugi could practically feel Atemu's aura as a physical thing. "Do you still like me as much as you used to?"

He wanted to answer that with something smart and glib… something to disperse all the weird tension he could feel in his body… But his throat was really dry and his head was suddenly preoccupied with incomprehensible gibberish interspersed with the occasional panicked profanity. He had no idea what he was doing, any more. "I… I think I…" He finally gave into the urge and licked his lips, swallowing hard. "I think I might even like you more."

Those beautiful eyes widened, and Atemu pulled back, hesitating for a single second, before his eyes hardened and he suddenly pushed forward again, his head tilted on a strange angle. Yuugi barely had time to register that he might have just figured out something important before his mind was wiped clean and replaced by pure white. Atemu's hand had suddenly gripped his jaw a little more firmly, and then there were suddenly lips closing around one of his own. They were pulling at it and pushing at him and even after the white faded all he could think was the incredibly intelligent phrase 'whoa'.

He didn't really notice his hand moving until Atemu tried to pull away, when they both discovered Yuugi had a tight grip on his shirt. That seemed to put them into something of a state of shock, because they only managed to separate a centimetre, Yuugi swallowing gasps of air as they stared at each other.

Yuugi swallowed again, trying to make his mind work beyond single syllable words that didn't make sense. He wasn't having much luck, because… well… He… Atemu had just… His first… Atemu… They had just… and he had… He blinked rapidly, his fingers twitching where they still held Atemu's shirt.

"Y- Yuugi," Atemu stammered, a quiet cough working in his throat. "Yuugi, I –"

"Atemu –" he breathed, and then suddenly his arm was yanking and those perfect thin lips were closing over his again, and he found it was actually really simple to copy the movement, and he was… was he really kissing someone? Was he kissing Atemu? Time was going much, much too fast and he kind of wanted to just pull away and go giggle or freak out or sit in his cupboard back home and think, but at the same time the kissing was really good and deceptively simple and he had to wonder if he was really bad, but the best way to get good at something was practice, so staying still and just continuing the kissing sounded really good. Was that saliva? Oh, wow, he was tasting Atemu's saliva and it… tasted pretty good, despite the whole gross part of body fluids and oh, wow, he was wondering what it would be like to feel someone else's tongue…

Pulling apart again was weird. He didn't have time to think or stare, because Atemu changed tactics and started nuzzling the side of his face with tiny little kisses to his cheek and ear and it was really easy to just lean into him and enjoy it.

It took a few seconds for his mind to leave its state of blabbering giggles, and by then Atemu was whispering something Yuugi couldn't quite focus on, because his mind was still full of 'whoa' and 'I just kissed Atemu'. The more important thing was that Atemu was loosening his grip and the tiny kisses were slowing down. Which was probably a good thing but still felt kind of bad.

Not that he was really sure what the difference was, right now.

Kissing hadn't actually been much like the movies. No fireworks or feeling weak at the knees. And it felt different to what he'd expected. He'd kind of thought it was really just pressing your lips against someone else's, but Atemu had kind of… pulled and pushed and… held one of Yuugi's lips with his own. He liked it a lot more than what he would have thought he would, but it was still very different.

Atemu had shifted up beneath him until Yuugi was the one leaning back, but his arm had slipped up and around to hold him steady and upright. It was probably just for balance, but the feeling of Atemu's open fist pressing into his shoulder blade, pushing him up at the same time as his lips were forcing him down, had actually been just… awesome.

Pulling apart again was weirdly nice, too. Breathing aside, it gave him a chance to look at Atemu, and see he wasn't nearly as composed as he usually was. Even in the dark and with his skin tone, Atemu was clearly flushed, his eyes brighter than usual and his breath coming in shuddering pants that seemed to have nothing to do with the air they'd been missing out on. Yuugi was at a bit of a loss. His mind still wasn't really working, and he had a feeling he would freak out about this if he ever started thinking again, but Atemu looked so lonely and hurt that he felt like he should get to thinking sometime soon.

"Atemu…"

"Shh," he breathed, clenching his eyes shut as his head fell forward until his forehead could rest on Yuugi's own. "Just… Just let me have this."

It was a strange statement, but at that point, Yuugi couldn't really care too much. He just nodded jerkily, and absently pushed Atemu away and down until he was lying back on the ground. He then turned around to join him, absently laying his hand against Atemu's and staring up at the sky.

He wouldn't have minded a little more of the kissing, but he had the feeling that doing more of that would require the question of why he wanted the Atemu like that answered. And that would require thinking, which was increasingly feeling like a very bad idea.

So he just lay back against the rock and touched his lips with his fingertips, reliving that first kiss again and again…

* * *

_**Six for eight… reviews cause I'm not late? Okay, corny much? But still…?**_


	7. Come Down

Chapter 7 – **_Come Down_**

**DISCLAIMER**: A stranger walked into the Phillip Island pub and orders a scotch. "You look upset," says the barman. "What's wrong?" The stranger replies, "I think I just ran over a couple of penguins. Emperors, I think." "Can't be," the barman says confidently. "Not at this time of year – it's summer, they won't be back for six months or so." But this good news is only greeted with a sob, "You better make it a double. I just ran over a couple of nuns."

_**(Can anyone tell I'm running out of bar jokes?)**_

* * *

Thinking back on it, he'd seen the clouds coming last night, when he was on the headland. 

The weather had finally turned, leaving the bright clear light of the sun as nothing more than a pleasant memory. The rain had started around four that morning, and it had been the sound of thunder that finally lulled Yuugi to sleep. It showed absolutely no sign of letting up, but since they would be travelling back to the city that day, no one particularly minded.

Yuugi couldn't quite find the energy to care, anyway. Even after the hours it took to fall asleep in the first place, he hadn't slept well. He hadn't had any dreams so much as his thoughts kept going around in his head in a big circle with no results. The feel of Atemu's lips and hands and arms; the image of his eyes and mouth; the question 'what the heck' made a loud and definite circuit on a regular basis.

He hadn't disliked the kiss. In fact, he'd really rather enjoyed it. Them. However many there had been. But there were several issues that he couldn't quite bring himself to think about. Every time he even tried, he would end up thinking about something else. It being his first kiss would bring up memories of how it had felt. It being Atemu would remind him of that look in Atemu's eyes when they pulled apart. Atemu being a guy would make his arms and torso tingle with the memory of being held and supported. He would get lost in the memory, panic, and then end up forcing himself to think about something completely unrelated, like whether his sneakers needed new laces yet.

Sleeping had, for the most part, been out of the question, and left him feeling drained and useless. He'd skipped breakfast on the grounds that the utensils would be too heavy to lift in his current state, and was now crouching at the end of his bed, staring blankly at his suitcase and willing it to pack itself.

"Hey, midget."

He blinked wearily, leaning his head back to meet Bakura's gaze. He was leaning into the bedroom with the bored expression that usually meant he was looking for something fairly urgent.

"Morning, Bakura-kun," he said, smiling. "Did you sleep well?"

"Lousy as the rest of the week," he said blankly, then shifted slightly with a single blink. The reason was apparently Anzu pushing him aside, because she ducked past him, and Honda then appeared over his shoulder.

"Hi Yuugi," he greeted.

"Morning." Yuugi looked around at them all, surprised. "How did you get in here? Isn't the door shut?"

"Yeah, but Ryou's window wasn't," Honda pointed out, shrugging.

"Speaking of which, have you seen him?" asked Bakura, and Yuugi nodded.

"Jounouch-kun and Ryou-kun went to breakfast early. Ryou-kun wanted to get a quick start on the day so he could finish packing and then take some photos of the rest of the year packing up," he explained, but Bakura was already gone from the doorway, and they heard the front door close behind him only a moment after Yuugi finished speaking.

They all hesitated, before Honda shrugged and straightened up with a quick wave. "Well, I came in to see if you guys wanted breakfast, but if you're here and they're already gone, I'm figuring those going are already there. You want eats, Anzu?"

"No, I'm good," she said, glancing down at Yuugi for permission to stay. He shrugged, and she smiled, turning back to wave Honda away. "Go, leave me with my Gameboy."

He laughed, already heading out, but Anzu continued waving at the empty doorway until they heard the front door shut behind him. She didn't move for a moment, letting her hand drop to her chest before she turned to look at Yuugi again.

"Are you alright?"

He blinked, staring at her, and she smiled gently, stepping forward to crouch down beside the bed.

"You look like you barely slept last night. And you were acting a little strangely when you caught up to us on the headland," she said softly. "It wasn't the 'the world's falling down around me but I don't want anyone to know' kind of strange, so I didn't mention it to the guys, but…"

He blinked again, then smiled and lowered his gaze back to the bed sheet. "The world's not falling down around me. Don't even think the walls're chipped."

"But something did happen last night."

"Mm…"

She watched him quietly for a moment, then suddenly looked away, up at the window. "The weather's been kind of weird, this week. It's summer, so you would've figured it would cloud up a little, but it's been nothing but blue skies and sunshine. Makes this rain on the day we're leaving feel a little symbolic, doesn't it?"

He glanced up at her, but she didn't look around, just pushed herself to her feet and picked up one of Yuugi's crumpled shirts from the floor in one smooth movement. She flicked it out to straighten it and began folding, always keeping her eyes on the window. "I always think vacations are weird. Whenever you spend time away from everyday life, you stop thinking like you usually do. Because it doesn't interfere with your everyday routine, you don't think about the consequences of your actions. I sure as hell wouldn't have danced with half the people I did on Wednesday night if we had been at home." She hesitated, carefully pushing the shirt into Yuugi's bag and picking up his pyjamas instead. "Murakami-kun has an underclassman girlfriend. She's really sweet, but kind of jealous. I never would have danced with him at home, even in class, because she might've found out. Truth is, she still might, and Murakami-kun and I could both wind up in trouble, but because we were out here, neither of us cared."

Yuugi frowned, suddenly noticing Anzu folding and packing his clothes. Normally, she refused to wash, clean or cook for her guy friends, but over the last year or so, Yuugi had begun to notice Anzu had a habit of mothering him. It was an unconscious thing, but every so often she would smooth out his clothes, clean up his bedroom, or even fish a comb out of her pocket and start _grooming _him. In fact, once, when he had caught a bad cold last year, she had actually dragged him home from school, undressed him, redressed him in his pyjamas, wrapped him up in a blanket and made sure he stayed there until Sugoroku could close the game shop and take over. For the most part, Yuugi didn't really mind—he knew it was a coping mechanism of some kind, because it got worse when she was worried about him—but what she was saying sounded a lot like what Atemu had been mumbling about last night, and that had resulted in a kiss. He didn't think he could cope with the implications of that when Anzu was acting all maternal.

"Anzu –"

"The weather almost seems symbolic, to me. Like, 'vacation's over – No more sunshine and irresponsibility for you – back to the real world!'" She stuffed his pyjamas into his bag and turned her head to meet his gaze directly, a slight frown marring her features. "It makes me think that maybe, no matter what happened this week, as soon as we get back to Domino tonight, everything will go back the way it was."

He opened his mouth to stop her, then paused and frowned, leaning back a little. "What's changed for you?"

"Me personally? Nothing much," she said, and picked up another shirt, focussing on it rather than look at him again. "But some things have changed… you, for instance."

"Huh?"

She shrugged, refusing to even glance at him. "I don't know. You're all happy and funny and cute, and I don't know what caused it and I definitely don't care, so don't tell me," she added pointedly. "But the point is, whatever it was, it made you change, this week, and… it would be… it'd be a shame if it all went back to normal."

Yuugi blinked, completely lost for a second. He hesitated, then pointed at himself, tilting his head in confusion. "I've changed this week?"

"Less of a change and more of a reversion," she muttered, still carefully avoiding his eyes.

"A reversion? To… what?"

For a single second, Anzu slumped, her eyes closing and arms dropping until the shirt she had just finished folding slipped out between her fingers. She scooped it back up again a moment later and continued as if the moment had never happened. "You remember third year middle school? When I started hanging out with those girls instead of you?"

"Mm…?"

"Remember I said it was because things were different, and you asked me if it was because Yamino didn't like you any more, and I said that wasn't it?"

He blinked again, then nodded slowly, still lost. A few days ago, he might have wondered if she was trying to tell him she liked it better when Atemu was with them, but Atemu had made a point of clearing up that misconception. The people that had once been his two best friends had never liked each other, and even if she had started to like Atemu now, she apparently knew he still didn't like her that much.

"I lied."

She had to know he didn't like her… she wouldn't have a crush on someone that didn't like her, would she?

"The truth is, I liked – I _like_ you better when you spend time with Yamino. Not because of him, I mean, he's an idiot and nothing is going to change that," she said quickly, waving away the very possibility. "But… when you know Yamino likes you… when you're absolutely sure of it… it's like you actually like yourself. And I love that in you."

Yuugi raised his eyebrows, staring at her blankly. He had absolutely no idea what she was saying. He hadn't changed this week. He hadn't changed over the last few years. He couldn't have – someone would have said something…

She put down the shirt she had been holding and knelt down beside him, taking his hand to hold with both of her own. "Yuugi, I don't like Yamino. He's mean, and self-centred, and arrogant, and totally possessive… but he really does care about you. And… and he makes you happy."

He lowered his gaze, reluctant to agree when Atemu was currently making him so utterly confused.

"So, when we go home, I don't want you to start worrying about what people think. It doesn't matter what Grandfather or Aunt Omocha say – if you want to be with Yamino, you should. Even – even if Jounouchi says something stupid or doesn't want him around… you just tell me and I'll beat Jounouchi's mouth shut, okay? Because it's not about Jounouchi or Grandfather or me. It's about you, and we'll stick by you no matter what."

"I know that…" he said quietly, and she leaned forward to try and catch his eye again.

"So you acting like this has nothing to do with you being worried about going home? Really?"

"Well… not… really… I mean… that too, but mainly…"

"Yuugi?"

"It's just – see, last night, when Atemu and I were talking—"

She cut him off with a strangled noise that could have been a gasp and could have been a groan, but when he looked around at her she just winced and nodded for him to continue.

"—he was worried about pretty much what you were saying… That we'd go home and Grandpa would tell me he's no good and I'd never want to talk to him again and all that," he said, his words coming out faster the longer he spoke. "But the thing is, I'm not worried about that at all, because I think you're right, you know? I really do like him, and I know you guys will warm up to him. It just takes him a little while to open up to people, you know? So I'm not really worried about that. But, I mean… the way we are—me and Atemu—it's different to how it used to be. And I don't care because he does make me feel different and happier and I like being with him! But then – but last night – something huge happened and now it's all weird and I don't know whether I'm really happy or just really confused, because this thing is really, really big and it's never happened before, so maybe I'm just reacting to that, but then I might not be, too, and I just might want the big thing to happen again. So I don't know whether it was a one-time thing to get it out of our systems, which would mean I should just act like everything's normal and okay, or whether it might happen again and I should be all… different about it and want to talk to him about it and make it into an even bigger thing. Because I don't think I'd mind that. But then that has all kinds of implications and I don't know what any of them mean, and what does that mean for you and me and me and Jounouch-kun and _what'll I tell my parents_, and –"

"Yuugi!" she cried, and he blinked, suddenly realising he had been babbling. She was staring at him like he'd turned blue from lack of air, and her grip on his hands had tightened in concern. "Yuugi, slow down! I want to help, really, but I can't even say anything until I know what you're talking about. What happened? Use small sentences, okay?"

"Oh… well, Atemu and I were just talking… and then we were talking about how we liked each other and wanted to keep hanging out," he said slowly, blushing as he looked off to the side again. "And then… I said I might even like him more than I used to, and then he – Atemu, he… kissed… me."

For several long moments, Anzu just continued gazing at him quietly, almost as if she hadn't heard and was still waiting for the big news. Then she smiled and squeezed his hands again. "That was your first kiss, wasn't it?" she asked quietly, and he blushed deeper but nodded anyway. "Oh, Yuugi… no wonder you're so freaked out! First kisses are always weird; they make everyone doubt themselves a little. You wouldn't know this, because it was in third year middle school, but my first kiss was from this boy whose name I didn't even know. He'd been reading all this bad shoujou manga about how to tell me he liked me, and he thought that was how to do it. I didn't know whether to start dating him on the spot or knock his lights out!"

"It – it's not weird I'm all weird, then?" he asked nervously, and she laughed, shaking her head warmly.

"No way. Especially since it was Yamino," she said, and squeezed his hands once more before standing up, letting his hands drop back to his knees. "Look, Yuugi, you and I are going to go out to the couch, and we're gonna sit down over tea and have a long talk about this; but before we do, I have to go do something. I promise I'll be right back."

He hesitated, pulling back a little in concern. "What are you going to do?"

"I have to go tell Jounouchi before this homicidal urge towards Atemu Yamino starts to fade."

* * *

Although he had gone in over five minutes before Otogi had headed off to breakfast, Atemu didn't emerge from the bathroom until long after Otogi had come back and was nursing his fourth mocha coffee for the day. 

"Got it all out now, have you?"

For a second, Atemu didn't catch the entendre, thereby clearing him of what Otogi had assumed he'd been doing in the bathroom all morning. But then he did, and the responding glare was enough to make Otogi swallow his follow up joke.

"Was Yuugi at breakfast?" Atemu asked, his tone distracted as he started packing up all Otogi's food from the cupboards.

"No, Jounouch-kun said he wanted to get an early start on the packing, why?"

He didn't answer, just shook his head and continued with his work. Once he had finished, everything lined up on the counter and ready for Otogi to put in his bag, he headed into the bathroom and began organising everyone's stuff into relatively neat piles.

For a few minutes, Otogi could only sit on the arm of the couch, wary of interrupting the obviously forced calm. This week, he had seen sides of Atemu that he had no idea existed, and this irritable, fidgety side promised an eventual outburst of emotion. He wasn't sure he wanted to be on the receiving end of that.

He had been with the others when Atemu and Yuugi had disappeared to talk. Ryou had followed after them for a few minutes, and come back in one of his quiet, unreadable moods. When Yuugi had found them, Atemu supposedly having gone back to the cabin for an early night, he had been a little quieter than usual, but not particularly scandalised or horrified. Whatever had gone on between the two of them was a mystery.

Still, asking might disrupt Atemu's calm, and that could be dangerous.

It took twenty minutes and another, final cup of mocha, but eventually curiousity won out. He followed Atemu into the bedroom and watched him unzip his suitcase before beginning his nervous, hesitant question.

"So, you finally get it on with Yuugi-kun last night, or what?"

Atemu ripping his school tracksuit down the seam was answer enough, and Otogi's eyes widened in disbelief.

"What the hell? You're kidding me!"

"We didn't do anything," he snapped, tossing a quick glare at him before looking back down at his tracksuit. He fiddled with it for a moment, then grimaced and quickly folded it up. "Get out."

"No way! What happened?" he demanded, leaning as far into the bedroom as his sense of self-preservation would allow. "I thought Yuugi-kun was straight?"

"He is," he said, and Otogi frowned. He knew from experience that kissing a straight guy always resulted in either a black eye or at least a deep depression from the rejection. Even for Atemu, this kind of reaction was weird.

"What exactly did you do?"

He didn't answer, just threw open his cupboard doors and began snatching clothes down off the hangers and throwing them at the bed.

"Is Yuugi-kun okay?"

"He's fine," he said shortly, then grimaced at one of his shirts before continuing. "I stopped before it could go anywhere."

Otogi hesitated, letting that work through his head for a moment. "Did you kiss him?"

Atemu didn't answer, but considering his short, clipped answers before, Otogi supposed that could actually be as close as he would get to an affirmation.

"Did he kiss back?" he asked quietly, and raised his eyebrows when that made Atemu pause.

"Yes," he said softly, then quickly shook his head and went back to his hurried movements. "But it was his first, it was stupid of me and… they're all going to kill me."

He slowly nodded, conceding the point. If Yuugi's friends found out Atemu had 'stolen' Yuugi's first kiss, he probably wouldn't survive the day. Unless, of course, "Did he enjoy it?"

That slowed Atemu down again for a moment, and he fell back to sit on his bed, staring at nothing. "I didn't let him say anything."

"You didn't talk to him about it?" Otogi asked, exasperated. "Damn, Yamino-kun, you just like making things hard on yourself."

"Shut up," he said absently, and Otogi smiled.

"Chill out. This is an easy fix. Look, if his friends don't kill you by the end of the day, you know Yuugi-kun's not mad. If he talks to you, you know he still wants to be friends. If he talks to you about the kiss, or starts acting all girly and lovey-dovey," He paused for effect, letting his smile turn evil at Atemu glance, "then you know you've caught yourself a midget boyfriend."

Atemu didn't look at him or smile, catching Otogi's good mood. He shook his head and stood up again, turning back to his packing.

* * *

Meeting up with Yuugi was difficult, but still easier than he'd thought it would be. They ran into each other on the restaurant porch at lunch, and for several terse seconds, they could both only stare at each other in silence. Yuugi made a few tiny movements, as if he were contemplating making a run for it, and Atemu wondered if he could make it through the whole train ride to dinner without breakfast or lunch. 

In the end it was Yuugi's stomach to speak first, and he immediately blushed, wrapping his arms around his waist. "Sorry. Missed breakfast."

"Yeah, me too," he said weakly, and Yuugi smiled, finally breaking the ice.

"Say, um, on the way back home, do you and Otogi-kun want to sit with us, on the train?" he asked, motioning with his head that they should go in. "I know you guys have other friends, but if you wanted…?"

He was acting like the kiss hadn't happened, and even though it gave him a few pangs that had nothing to do with food, Atemu could cope with that. While the kiss hadn't felt in the least bit wrong, it had been a pretty stupid thing to do, logically. He should have given Yuugi time to notice they had been flirting before even thinking of something like that.

His fear gradually decreased over the remaining afternoon. Yuugi's friends didn't look particularly homicidal, though Anzu did grab his arm on the way to the buses and hiss, "We are going to talk about this," and Ryou was being very civil, rather than polite, which was probably as close as he came to being cold. Otherwise everything was fine, and soon Atemu lost himself in conversation with Yuugi. In fact, it wasn't until they were all getting off the train back at Domino station that the kiss was even brought up, and it was Atemu himself to mention it.

"So about last night," he whispered, leaning down to Yuugi's ear so the other students wouldn't hear. "Do Jounouchi and the others know, or…?"

"No," Yuugi said shortly, then smiled to let him know he wasn't mad, just… not ready to talk about it. "I don't think it's really anything they need to know, yet."

The yet was interesting, but Atemu could read Yuugi well enough to know that was as far as they could really talk about it, right now. He offered a returning smile, and Yuugi blinked, clicking his fingers at something that had just occurred to him.

"Hey, you know, Grandpa is… well, if we really are going to keep hanging out like this, Grandpa's gonna have to start talking to you again."

Atemu winced, the mental image alone enough to inspire a little fear. "Yeah… how about we keep it a secret for a while?"

"Like I can keep things from Grandpa," he pointed out with a wry smile, and Atemu sighed.

"I'd really rather not die a painful death before I'm legal."

"Atemu…"

It was the first time he'd used his name all day, and Atemu felt any resolve he might have had crumble. "We could meet at a restaurant. He chooses the place, and as long as it's in public where he can't kill me and cover it up, I'll pay for the food."

"Or you could come over for dinner tomorrow night," he suggested with a smile. "Grandpa's closing the store early in celebration of me becoming his slave the day after, so… you could come over around five…?"

He hesitated, brushing a lock of hair behind his ear. "I don't know… so soon?"

"Please? The sooner he can watch the gaming channel again, the happier he'll be. And the sooner you can come over and hang out," he added, then bit his lip, pulling back. "Unless you've got other stuff to do, I mean –"

"No, no, it's not that, I just… Does he still have that kendo sword?" he asked nervously. "That used to hurt, you know."

"I'll protect you on the condition you come over tomorrow night."

He hesitated, scratching his head. "Could you come pick me up? That way, I won't have to risk Grandfather Sugoroku's wrath by showing up without proof it's okay with you."

"Sure. I'll come by at four-thirty," he said, then winced. "Just… could you warn Dendera-chan I'm coming? She was a little excited the last time I saw her…"

"Psycho sister at bay, got it."

* * *

Controlling Dendera was always easier said than done, but when it came to Yuugi, it was almost impossible. Bribery had stopped working this year when she'd entered an anti-capitalism phase 'in the search for spiritual happiness'. Physical violence was problematic because she would often retaliate with some painful practical joke. And coercion only worked when he had some kind of blackmail, the last of which he'd used when buying Yuugi a gift last Christmas. 

Which was the only reason why, he told himself firmly, he was sitting on the low wall around his front garden at four twenty. It was about making sure Dendera didn't see Yuugi before they could make their escape, not because he was too nervous to pace around his bedroom while he waited.

He noticed his legs bouncing impatiently and immediately crossed them, looking off to the side to deny the movement. Not having talked about the kiss or seen Yuugi to gauge his delayed reaction was causing all sorts of issues in Atemu's mind. There were possibilities and questions and things to talk about or ignore…

He was pretty sure Yuugi had liked the kiss, but not even Atemu's newly remembered arrogance could make him think he could turn a straight man gay. And Yuugi's occasionally wandering eyes at the beach had assured him the boy still liked girls. Bisexual, perhaps? It was always a possibility. But then, Yuugi was still fairly young in the head, sometimes. It really could have just been a reaction to it being his first kiss. But at the same time, Atemu could have sworn they were flirting throughout most of the day before. Kiss or no, Atemu couldn't see how it could be possible for someone as amazing as Yuugi to have gone through high school without someone trying to flirt with them. But he was somewhat biased. Still, surely Yuugi had noticed!

He was so caught up in his thoughts it took him almost a full minute to notice his sister sitting down beside him, and then it was only because she put a hot pork bun under his nose. He blinked at her, taking it silently when she gave him a pointed look.

"You hiding out here for a reason?" she demanded, and he scowled.

"Less hiding and more avoiding. What do you want?"

"I want to know what's going on with you," she said honestly. "You're all dressed up and stressed out. It's weird."

He continued frowning at her for a moment, then pointedly occupied his mouth with the pork bun she had given him.

"Something happened on the school trip," she guessed, narrowing her eyes in suspicion. "You've been acting funny ever since you got back. You don't have another boyfriend, do you?"

He took another large bite, and Dendera raised an eyebrow. "Was that a yes? Please tell me you're going to tell Mum and Dad this time. They still haven't figured out Kenichi was anything more than your sparring partner, and it's really sad."

"I don't have a boyfriend," he said quietly. "I'm not even sure he's a friend at the moment."

She watched him carefully for a minute, taking note of the way he held his shoulders and chewed his pork bun slower than he had to. "Y'know what? You're picking up a lotta Dad's annoying habits. S'why you can't keep hold of any of those guys I've seen you with at the arcade." She paused to smirk when he grunted at her in annoyance, but then continued as if he hadn't. "Dad's always… what's the word… projecting? Yeah, he _projects _his feelings about stuff onto other people. Like when he assumed none of us agreed with schools closing on Saturdays. That way he could lecture at us about how it would be good for students to have more time to relax, and convince himself that it could be a good thing, at the same time. You do that too. Only about being gay, instead of useful stuff like Dad."

He stared at her blankly for a few moments, but she just grinned, poking his shoulder with one finger. "You automatically assume all these guys you like don't like gays. That way, you have an excuse to never get into a relationship, and you can feel all righteous and put upon and complain to yourself with a roundabout internal monologue!"

"Are you done?" he asked blandly, but she shook her head with another grin.

"You did it with Yuugi, too. You said 'oh noes, he shall not like me for I am the homosexual! I must push him away, else he think I'm icky!', all because you weren't comfortable," she said, and Atemu rolled his eyes up to the sky, annoyed. "And now, because you did all that, you can sit in your dark little corner and angst away until Yuugi disappears from your – huh?"

He raised his eyebrows at the sudden halt in the annoying commentary, chewing the last of his pork bun. Dendera stood up, her eyes widening in disbelief.

"Is that… Hey, Atemu, that guy coming towards us… that's not Yuugi, is it?"

Atemu stiffened, glancing over his shoulder, and swore under his breath when he realised she was right. "No. Go inside, now."

"Oh my… it is him! Big Brother, what did you do?" she demanded, spinning down to stare at him. "Hey, tell me, what did you do?"

"I will do your chores for a month if you go inside right now," he snarled as he stood up, but she just leaned around him to stare at Yuugi.

"Screw that, I'll do yours if you tell me what's going on," she said, but didn't wait for his response before taking off down the street. Atemu swore aloud and hurried after her as fast as he could manage without looking concerned. He caught up just as Dendera finished repeating her question to Yuugi.

"Didn't your brother tell you, Dendera-chan?" asked Yuugi, glancing over her head to meet Atemu's gaze. "He's having dinner at my house, tonight."

She gaped at him, then spun around to stare at Atemu instead, who avoided her gaze by offering Yuugi a small smile in greeting. Dendera scowled at him, then turned around to apparently get her revenge for not being kept in the loop.

"So you guys are talking again, now? Oh, thank the gods, Big Brother has been so annoying without you. He's been moping around for years now, it's so pathetic," she said, and Atemu sighed, putting a hand to his forehead. Dendera had always loved to show off in front of Yuugi. "Oh hey! Is that the eagle necklace Big Brother bought you?"

He flinched at that, pulling his hand away just enough to catch Yuugi's startled reaction, and watch as he instinctively grabbed at the ever-present necklace. Dendera smirked, obviously having caught the intended target.

"It's awesome that you like it. Big Brother was so worried you wouldn't. It was so expensive, but whenever I told him it was too much, he just kept saying 'Yuugi's worth it, Yuugi's worth it'. Honestly, he's such a girl, I don't know how anyone still thinks he's straight."

Yuugi could only stare at her blankly, and Atemu buried his face in his hand, quietly mortified. "Are you done, Dendera?"

"Almost. Ne, Yuugi, has Atemu told you about what he wants to get you this year? It's like, an heirloom. I think it's supposed to be –"

"And you are now officially done," Atemu snapped, grabbing her by the back of her shirt. He spun her around and forcefully shoved her off down the street, back toward their house. "Go read Gravitation."

She hummed her farewell, waving playfully to Yuugi, who just blinked back, still gripping his necklace like a life preserver. Atemu hesitated, looking around at him nervously, and Yuugi frowned as their gazes met.

"Did you really –?"

"I wanted to," he said quietly, but Yuugi could read as much into it as there probably was. They gazed at each other silently for a moment, before Yuugi suddenly blushed and ducked his head, his eyes shooting off to the side.

"Really… thank you," he murmured, his tone warm with emotion. "For all the presents… really, thank you, Atemu…"

He swallowed hard, glancing in every direction but forward. "Well, you know… you are… worth it. Yeah," he finished lamely, and coughed to try and disperse the developing mood. "Let's get going to my funeral before it gets late, okay?"

* * *

He was trying to be light-hearted about this whole thing, but each step Yuugi took toward the game shop got harder, and there was no reassurance from Atemu, who was matching Yuugi's slow pace with an increasingly tight bite on his lower lip. Yuugi wasn't in the least bit surprised when Atemu had to wipe a drop of blood from his lip to speak. 

They stopped in front of the front door and stared at it blankly, but Atemu didn't make any motions to suggest Yuugi should open it, and Yuugi didn't feel particularly ready for it.

It wasn't that he thought his grandfather would really hurt Atemu… Yuugi had, after all, explained the whole situation to him last night, and be damned if he didn't think it was a good reason, so it only followed his grandfather would think so too. But Anzu knew Atemu's side of the story, and she was still being nasty to him. And she didn't even know the whole story on Yuugi's side. His family did – his mother had dragged him to three different kinds of doctors when he had stopped eating properly, and his grandfather had spent more than one night listening to Yuugi pointedly not cry over his lost friend.

Worse, when he had told his grandfather everything, the night before, Sugoroku hadn't really reacted very well. In fact, he hadn't reacted much at all beyond a few grunts and nods. Yuugi had told him he was bringing Atemu over for dinner, but he had no idea how his grandfather would treat his old best friend.

At least his mother wasn't home to make things worse.

"Let's just get this over with," Atemu said suddenly, laying his hand on Yuugi's shoulder. "Your grandfather may not want to see me, but I would like to see him."

Yuugi raised an eyebrow, looking up at him with a wry smile. "And we're here anyway."

He managed a small smirk, and Yuugi took a deep breath before quickly opening the door and leading the way inside. They slipped off their shoes, and Yuugi carefully sneaked forward, checking up and down the hall to make sure his grandfather wasn't lying in wait with his bokken. Once he was sure the coast was clear, he beckoned Atemu forward and called out, "I'm home!"

"Welcome back." Sugoroku's voice came from the kitchen, and the two boys exchanged glances before starting toward it. Atemu moved behind Yuugi as they walked into the kitchen, but Sugoroku was sitting at the empty kitchen table with an unreadable expression and no visible weapons in range. He nodded to Atemu in greeting. "It's been a long time, Yamino-kun."

Atemu hesitated before stepping out from behind Yuugi, but his fingers always remained only millimetres from Yuugi's arm as he bowed. "I'd be honoured if you would call me Atemu, again, Grandfather."

Yuugi licked his lips, watching nervously as Sugoroku gave Atemu a very cool once over. When Atemu had risen from his bow, his head still lowered so he was looking out from under his brows, Sugoroku slowly stood up and leaned over the table, his eyes narrowed in a dark look.

"Don't think you can butter me up so easy," he said, and Yuugi swallowed hard, all his nerves suddenly returning full force. It only got worse as Atemu straightened to his full height, his hand leaving Yuugi's side for his own pocket.

"I don't need your approval, old man," Atemu shot back. The two exchanged glares for several long moments, and Yuugi prepared himself to jump in the line of fire to protect whoever drew second. He should have known better than to expect these two to get along so soon – they'd always had a fairly volatile relationship, it had to have gotten worse with time!

He hesitated, looking between the two warily, but before he could guess who would strike first, Sugoroku's scowl suddenly ripped into a broad grin. Atemu smirked, shifting his weight back with a soft laugh. "Good to see you, Grandpa."

"Welcome back, brat."

Yuugi grabbed at the wall to keep himself from falling over.

* * *

After a few false starts that were more to scare Yuugi than anything, the night went down better than Atemu could have hoped for. Sugoroku and Atemu did have a great deal in common, interests-wise, and now that Atemu was involved in professional gaming, they even had grand, exaggerated stories to swap. 

Yuugi made dinner, listening with half an ear as Atemu described all the unreported details of Duellist Kingdom and Battle City, and Sugoroku interrogated him on Pegasus' duelling strategies and personalised cards. Once Yuugi could rejoin their conversation properly, talk shifted on to more general topics, and Atemu almost forgot he had ever felt unwelcome on this street.

It wasn't until dessert was finished that Atemu remembered he was in the middle of what could be construed as an interview, but it was brought down with a heavy blow when Sugoroku suddenly clapped him on the shoulder a little harder than was really necessary.

"Now, Atemu. I've got something I want to show you; come on into the lounge room for a minute, won't you?"

Even Yuugi caught the true meaning to the invitation, and he frowned at his grandfather as he began clearing up the plates. "That can wait, can't it, Grandpa?"

"No, it's fine," Atemu said, and met his worried gaze with as reassuring a smile as he could manage. "I'll be right back to give you a hand with that, if you like."

Yuugi's nerves only seemed to get worse, so Atemu quickly stood up, motioning for Sugoroku to lead the way. He followed him into the living room, and felt the mood of the nerve-racking interview hike up into what felt an awful lot like meeting a potential father-in-law. It only got worse as Sugoroku planted himself in the armchair and motioned for Atemu to kneel on the floor.

Naturally, his initial desire was to remain standing with a dark glare, but after considering his situation for an instant, he dropped to his knees without complaint.

"I wish I could say that what Yuugi told me last night came as a surprise," Sugoroku said quietly, and even though he knew the old man had given up smoking before Yuugi was even born, he could practically see him lighting up a cigarette in his mind's eye. But all Sugoroku really did was begin stroking his beard and gaze up at the ceiling. "But even when you were growing up, I thought this could be a possibility. We all saw those looks you gave Yuugi after you'd hit puberty… both your mothers discussed it at length; relationships are such dangerous things. We were concerned, not only for the obvious reasons about gender and how far removed you already were from other children, even without the added adversity. Imagine what would happen if it all went wrong? You've experienced exactly what we were worried about – the two of you losing each other and everything you had."

Atemu bit his lip, making sure to glare at the carpet rather than look up at Sugoroku. If they had known all this from the beginning, they damn well should have said something. He clenched his fingers around his knees, waiting for the explanation he knew was coming.

"Of course, we could have been wrong. Yuugi never seemed to notice what was happening, and we hadn't yet learned how very naïve he can be to other people's affections. We assumed everything that happened was about something completely different," Sugoroku continued, and Atemu glanced up long enough to see his smile. "Which goes to show you that you should never make assumptions. They can turn out very badly."

"I suppose so," he grunted. They still could have said something. Asked if that was what it was all about, rather than being all vague about even noticing something was wrong.

"Very badly indeed… I had no idea how important you were to my grandson until you were no longer there," Sugoroku murmured. "I worry about him… even now. He has so many friends—good friends, at that—but he's still not himself. He's not that same open, happy boy he was growing up. In three and a half years, I don't think I've ever seen him completely at ease."

Atemu nodded quietly, looking off to the side as if Yuugi were right beside him. He'd hoped the way Yuugi was acting and thinking was just because he still wasn't comfortable with him, but this made more sense. This explained why Anzu and Sugoroku were still being so cool toward him.

"I can't say I'm really happy to have you back in my grandson's life after all that, Atemu. Your actions, while somewhat predictable, did cause a great deal of damage to Yuugi's sense of self. He would have done anything for you. And I'm not certain that he wouldn't still." Sugoroku paused, and Atemu bit his lip again, recognising his own thoughts twisted into the words. After a moment, the old man took a deep breath and leaned forward, folding his hands together. "This is the real reason I needed to speak with you tonight. You are a good person; I can tell by the way you speak and act toward Yuugi. And I think you would be a good friend."

"Thank you," he said quietly, but his fingers didn't unclench from around his knee. There was a 'but' in there somewhere, he just knew.

"Yuugi would be very happy to have you as a friend, and I would like nothing better than to see him enjoy himself as he did tonight," Sugoroku continued, his words coming slower as he reached the point Atemu was waiting for. "Despite all that, I have to ask you to keep any further emotions or thoughts concerning Yuugi to yourself, at least for the time being."

Atemu twitched, partly flinching over being seen through so easily, and partly at being told, however politely, to back off.

"Yuugi is much more vulnerable than he thinks he is. Than you think he is. If you tell him you want more than friendship from him, he will give it to you without question. Without even wondering if that's what he really wants," Sugoroku said, the force returning to his voice. "He's never been in a relationship before, he doesn't know what it feels like. And then, if he even realises that he doesn't want it, he would feel obligated to continue a relationship because it was what you wanted. Do you really want that?"

There was a very large, admittedly immature, part of Atemu that was telling him to jump to his feet and demand Sugoroku shut up and stay out of it. That Yuugi was much more capable than anyone was giving him credit for. That the two of them could make their own decisions and it didn't matter how screwed up they both were, they were fully capable of knowing what was good for them. It was surprisingly hard to suppress the urge to stand up and just walk out in furious disbelief. It seemed like everyone was just so sure of what Yuugi needed, and no one was ever even talking to him about it.

But after the last four years, he was in no position to argue about what was good for Yuugi.

"No," he said quietly, closing his eyes. "I'd rather not be near him at all than force him into something he didn't want."

* * *

"How'd it go?" 

Atemu smiled as he wandered back into the kitchen, letting his limbs swing more than usual as he made his way over to stand beside Yuugi where he was washing dishes. The slightly wild movement made him bump a little closer to Yuugi's side than he intended, but Yuugi just knocked him back with a gentle nudge, so it all just ended up strangely affectionate.

"I think I passed. Now I just have to convince you that you really do want to waste your time on me and I'll have the next month and a half to practice ducking ladles before your mother comes home and we can do all this all over again," he said wearily, and Yuugi smiled, nudging him with his elbow again.

"You like the attention."

He huffed out a laugh and turned around, leaning back against the counter to gaze around the familiar kitchen. It hadn't changed much in four years… he could almost trick himself into thinking this was just another one of the countless dinners or sleepovers he had at the game shop. He and Yuugi would sit in the two chairs facing the television and wage thumb wars while they waited for dinner, or kick each other under the table just for the fun of it.

He closed his eyes, leaning his head back at a vague memory from when he'd been thirteen. They'd been sitting down for dinner, and he couldn't actually remember why, but Yuugi had nudged him with his leg. Atemu had responded by sliding his foot over Yuugi's and up his shin. His first game of footsy and he'd never realised what he was doing. He could still remember the strange smile Yuugi had given him, clear as day, though the rest of the night was lost to Atemu's memory.

If they had been older, and Yuugi could have possibly known how, he would have said the look was downright flirtatious.

But that was just wishful thinking on his part.

"But really, you were so amazing tonight. I can't believe how totally cool you were," Yuugi was saying when Atemu pulled himself back to the present. "I wasn't even the one on trial and I was nervous enough to have a heart attack."

"I was expecting much worse," he admitted, turning his head to watch Yuugi work. "At the very least I was expecting him to yell at me. I was prepared to have to deal with him calling me a sick freak as he chased me out of the house for trying to corrupt you."

Yuugi frowned at him, but it was more out of concern than annoyance. "You know he wouldn't do that."

"No… but I keep waiting for someone to," he said quietly, and Yuugi paused, resting his soapy hands on the edge of the sink.

"You're not sick. Or a freak. You're not even that unusual," he murmured, and then flicked water at him when Atemu just shrugged. "It doesn't change who you are. And you're a really amazing person. Near as I can tell, it makes you slightly more intelligent than the rest of us."

Atemu raised an eyebrow at him, and Yuugi grinned.

"All the hormones and feelings and worrying about how they look? Guys are way better to hang around with than girls."

He laughed, turning halfway to lean into Yuugi's side, his hand rising to brace against Yuugi's back. It was deceptively easy to stay there, but he pushed himself upright, meeting Yuugi's grin with a lazy smirk. "That's one reason."

They fell into companionable silence, but when Atemu looked around, Yuugi's face had clouded over in thought, his eyes firmly fixed on the plate he was scrubbing. He hesitated, wondering if he should just ask what the problem was, but eventually chose to avoid it. He had always found that to be the safer option.

"So, you know that our parents thought I might be gay before I did?"

Yuugi dropped the plate and spun around to stare at him, and Atemu shrugged, trying for nonchalance despite the slight irritation he still felt.

"Yeah. Apparently they had already thought this all might happen, but for different reasons. I know it shouldn't, but the fact they never said anything really pisses me off," he said, and Yuugi nodded.

"I don't blame you. They knew? I thought you said your parents had never talked to you about all this?"

"Guess they were trying to respect my privacy or something."

"But that's not good enough!" cried Yuugi, throwing his sponge into the water, indignant. "If they knew about all this, they must have known what you were going through! And they never talked to you about it?"

"Well, I didn't exactly broach the subject," Atemu admitted, but he couldn't help smiling at Yuugi's irritation. It was kind of nice to see someone get upset on his behalf.

"That's beside the point! If they knew you were having problems, they should have asked you about it!" Yuugi said, and he turned back to his dishes with an irritated huff. "What good are concerned parents if they don't even try to help?"

"You going to have words with them, Yuugi?" he asked playfully. "Tell them how to raise their son?"

"Well… no… I'm sure they thought they were doing the right thing, but…" Yuugi fidgeted with the sponge for a moment, then stamped his foot. "Someone should've been there!"

For a moment, Atemu wasn't quite sure what to do. He basically knew that Yuugi was feeling guilty over the fact Atemu had to work himself out on his own; the fact that he was getting upset at Atemu's parents for not helping was better proof than anything he might have said. It was kind of nice that Yuugi, who never got mad at anything, was mad for him.

In the end he just leaned over and grabbed the dishtowel from its rack, picking up one of the bowls to dry. They worked in relative silence for a few minutes, Yuugi occasionally murmuring to indicate where the plates and utensils went in the cupboards, until Atemu looked for the next plate and suddenly realised Yuugi had stopped working, his hands hanging in the dirty water as he stared into space.

He raised his eyebrows, leaning forward to see Yuugi's expression, but Yuugi didn't notice the attention until Atemu actually touched his arm. "Yuugi?"

"Huh? Oh, sorry," he said, blinking quickly as he turned back to the dishes. A slight flush had spread over his cheeks, but he shook his head so his hair fell forward to hide it. "Spaced out for a second, sorry."

"Yuugi?" he repeated worriedly, leaning closer for a better look. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing!" he cried, but the flush had turned into a full-blown blush and was spreading over the rest of his face. "I was just… thinking about the other night," he said quietly, lowering his eyes off to the side. "And – and I keep thinking about how you – I mean, how we – about the k-kiss."

Atemu swallowed hard, turning back to face forward again. "It was nothing, Yuugi, just forget about it."

"It… No, I get that, it's just – it – it didn't seem like nothing," he mumbled, and Atemu bowed his head, keeping his eyes locked on the sponge Yuugi was twisting into a thin rope. "It seemed really… something. To you, at least…"

"Don't worry about it," he snapped, and then took a deep breath before turning back to look at him again. Yuugi didn't look upset so much as preoccupied, so he took another breath and forced a weak smile. "You're just confused because it was your first and we're still weird. I shouldn't have done it, and it was just a mistake. Just forget about it, okay?"

"Okay," he said quietly, and Atemu nodded, turning away again, only to stop when Yuugi continued, "Only that wasn't what I was getting at."

He put his towel down and turned around again, leaning one hand on the counter as he gave Yuugi a look he knew was much more irritated than he was really feeling.

"I mean, yeah, I keep thinking about what we did, and… and that's… it was… that is…" He shook his head and one hand, waving that part of the topic away to be dealt with later. "We're almost eighteen, I mean, I think about that stuff all the time. And other stuff. So that's not what I need to talk to you about, because it's just… other stuff."

Atemu raised his eyebrows impatiently, gesturing for Yuugi to get a move on. The back of his mind was extremely interested in the fact Yuugi could just put their kiss away with all the other 'other stuff' that his apparently not so heterosexual mind thought about, but he was in enough control of his hormones to keep his promise to Sugoroku. He was just going to ignore the fact that, now Yuugi had mentioned it, all he could think about was Yuugi's mouth and skin and chest and – and he would just focus on their friendship. That was more important. Convincing Yuugi of this was the first step to convincing himself.

"It's just… When you told me, before, that you used to l-like me th- that way," Yuugi said, swallowing hard to control his stammering. "I assumed that you didn't, any more. But that k-kiss made me think that – I mean, I just wonder now if you – Whether you might be kind of… still… interested?"

It was all he could do to keep his mouth shut, this time. Atemu clenched his hand around the dish towel, keeping his gaze locked with Yuugi's so there was no way for his nervousness to show through. He could lie with the best of them. He had fooled Pegasus J. Crawford into thinking he was helpless against that damn Thousand Eyes Sacrifice – he could definitely convince Yuugi he wasn't in the slightest bit interested.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Yuugi asked quietly, and Atemu's fist slipped on the counter. Yuugi just shook his head, staring at him in confusion. "I didn't even think you might… There are better –"

"Don't!" he said loudly, before he could stop himself, and then clenched his eyes shut to continue. "Don't tell me that there are better options, Yuugi, because you don't know what you're talking about."

He frowned, and Atemu sighed, feeling his shoulders slump in resignation. "There is no one better, Yuugi. In four years, I have looked, and I haven't found anyone so perfect as you," he muttered irritably, keeping his eyes averted so he didn't have to see Yuugi's expression. "I've met people just as smart, or just as sweet, or just as beautiful, but there is no one that is all that and so strong and compassionate and kind, all at once. Don't try and tell me you know better."

"I'm not –"

"Yuugi," he said firmly, but a soft touch on his arm made him look around again, and he pursed his lips at the look on Yuugi's face. "Leave it alone, okay?"

For a second, they just looked at each other silently, before Yuugi shook his head once and stepped forward, tightening his grip on Atemu's arm. "I won't."

* * *

He wasn't entirely sure how it happened, but somehow they ended up kissing again. 

Yuugi really didn't mind. He had a feeling he might have been the one to start it this time—he vaguely remembered grabbing Atemu's collar with his free hand and pulling him down—but it was much more interesting to note how many different kinds of kissing there could be. He'd always thought there was only the one with tongue and the one without, but this wasn't really using tongue like he thought you were supposed to use it, but it was much rougher and hotter and just plain better than the kiss they'd had on the headland.

Unfortunately, it only lasted about ten seconds before Atemu suddenly gripped his shoulders and shoved him back a few steps, once again panting like he'd run a marathon. Yuugi blinked, confused and, if he was really honest, more than a little irritated.

"No. No, I can't do this," Atemu muttered firmly, and Yuugi raised an eyebrow, still lost. "I won't. I will not do this."

"Atemu?"

"You don't know what you're doing. You're being reactionary and compassionate, and I will not take advantage of it," he hissed, then suddenly dropped Yuugi's shoulders and spun around, marching out of the kitchen.

Yuugi blinked, shuffling in place for a second as he tried to work out what had happened. They had been talking, and then kissing, and now Atemu was leaving? That wasn't normal, was it? He shook his head and hurried after him, openly staring when he found Atemu shoving on his boots in the entrance hall.

"What the hell?" he demanded, but Atemu didn't so much as pause, zipping up his boots without even looking around. "Hey, hold on! You can't just leave!"

"I have to," he said breathlessly, and Yuugi blinked again at his apologetic glance. "I can't do this, Yuugi. I thought I could, but I really can't. So hate me if you want to—in fact, please, please hate me—but I have to get out and I don't think I can come back."

He stared at him quietly for a moment, vaguely aware of a quiet buzzing that was beginning to build in his ears. He felt his fists clench as the unfamiliar stirrings of anger began making themselves known in his chest. "Do you mean my house or my life?"

Atemu only hesitated a moment before turning away to open the door. "Both."

This was most definitely not normal, Yuugi decided, feeling his jaw clench. Not even Atemu, weird and utterly insane as he was, could profess such strong feelings of _like _and then turn around and do this. This had something to do with his friends and grandfather, he just knew it. This was something really stupid.

He looked up, ready to demand some answers, only to be confronted with an empty entrance hall and a closed door. He blinked at the empty room, then cried out and shoved on his sneakers before hurrying out the door.

He managed to catch up to Atemu before the idiot got even two shops down, but Atemu didn't stop walking or look around at his shout, so he had to run in front of him with his arms spread wide to keep him from moving. Atemu stopped and stared at him helplessly, but Yuugi didn't move or lower his arms. They were going to talk about this, this time.

"What are you talking about, you can't do this? Do what?"

"I can't be your friend," he replied wearily, stepping sideways only to grimace when Yuugi moved to cut him off. "I've tried, but I can't handle you caring about me like this. I can't look at you without wanting to touch you. I can't touch you without wanting to hold you. I can't hold you without wanting to kiss you and from there it just gets worse…! And I can't have that."

"Why not?" he demanded, stamping his foot in irritation. Most of the shops were still open, with a few people walking around, but he didn't care who saw him, any more. He was sick of second guessing the one person that he had ever felt closest to. He was sick of people making decisions about his life without telling him. "When did I ever say I didn't like that?"

"You're eighteen and sexually frustrated, Yuugi, you'd like it if one of Kaiba's Solid Vision Holograms did it!" he cried, and Yuugi blushed, pulling back in embarrassment. Atemu scowled, clenching his fists and lowering his voice to a harsh whisper. "Yuugi, I would take what happened more seriously if things were different, but they aren't! You haven't had a girlfriend, you've never been kissed, you are a male teenager that, if you're anything like me, thinks about sex at least once every five minutes – you don't care what it is as long as you get it!"

Yuugi was sure his blush was starting to reach his shoulders by now, but he ignored the embarrassment long enough to roll his eyes in frustration. "That doesn't mean I didn't like it."

"No, but you mean far too much for me to just take advantage of it!" he hissed, then shoved his way past and managed three steps before they both turned around and Atemu stalked back to snarl at him some more. "I don't know how to deal with this situation, so just leave it alone and stop following me!"

"You do not get to run away from this again!" Yuugi snapped, and Atemu flinched, his eyes wide in amazement. Yuugi huffed, hunching his shoulders as he pushed into Atemu's personal space. "You're right, I don't know what I'm doing, and I suppose I am frustrated, but I am not a little kid! I know what's good for me and what I like, and I like you! I don't know what kind of like it is, but you're really important to me, and I don't want to lose you!"

"I don't want to lose you either, which is why I can't be friends with you!" he whispered harshly. "You like looking at breasts, and I don't know if you noticed, but I don't have any! But I like you even more than you like breasts, and every time I look at you I want you more and people cannot be friends when one of those people wants to shove the other up against a wall and jerk them off!"

Yuugi had to stop at that, the mental image making him faulter for a good three seconds before he managed to get his breath back. "It's been less than a week, Atemu, it might get better! We might… get over this thing and be better friends for it!"

"No, Yuugi, we won't!" he cried, then caught himself and lowered his voice again. "I have spent the last four years thinking about you like this. I can deal with it when I don't have to talk to you because I can tell myself you like girls more than you like me. But when you're right here where I can touch you…"

They just stared at each other silently for a moment, and Atemu sighed, reaching up to brush his hand over Yuugi's cheek. "I don't think there will ever be anyone else because you are right here where I can have you," he whispered, but as soon as Yuugi turned into his hand, it dropped. "And you think you could want me because I am right here and willing to have you. But there is probably someone else for me… and you don't really want me."

"You don't know that."

"Yeah, I do. Give it a few days, and you will too," he said quietly, then stepped back, shoving his hands in his pockets with a shrug. "I don't want to hurt you Yuugi, and… you giving me what I want would probably hurt me too. So let's just leave it at that, okay?"

"So we're not even friends?" Yuugi asked, staring at him. "It's all or nothing?"

"It's all it can be," Atemu said simply, before he took a quick, sharp breath and turned around, hiding his face. Yuugi couldn't see his expression, but although the tone and pitch were even, Yuugi could still hear the pain in Atemu's voice as he called over his shoulder, "I'll see you in school next month."

Yuugi didn't call back, unsure of whether he should burst into tears or run after Atemu to see whether punching former best friends in the face was as comforting as Jounouchi always made it look.

In the end he just continued staring after Atemu until long after he had disappeared, his fists clenching and unclenching as he struggled to come to a decision. But when he was honest with himself, there was no real decision to be made.

He should have expected this.

Yuugi turned around and started heading back to the game shop. He had dishes to finish.

* * *

**_Uhh…_** **_I fear for but I still ask for some reviews?_**


	8. Withdrawal

Chapter 8 – **_Withdrawal_**

**DISCLAIMER**: So this pirate walks into a tavern with, believe it or not, a steering wheel stuck down the front of his pants. For a while, the bartender tries to ignore it because that's good customer service, but in the end he has to ask, "Alright, I'll bite. What's with the steering wheel?" The man looks down at his pants and says, (I've been told I have to say it like this,) "Arr! I don't know, but it's driving me nuts!"

* * *

There were many strange things Katsuya Jounouchi had gotten used to over the last two and a half years. Random drop by visits from the world famous or ridiculously rich; the occasional kidnapping or murder threat; games becoming the whole basis of a person's existence. When he was truly being honest with himself, he almost thought that he would be perfectly adjusted to cope should he one day wake up in a whole alternate reality with talking Duel Monsters and magical dragons.

But his best friend could still surprise him.

Jounouchi chewed his bottom lip, watching with wary calm as Yuugi fed another hundred yen into the slot and picked up the plastic gun for the first-person shooter game. He had been playing for almost an hour, racked up enough points to fill the high score board alone, and showed absolutely no signs of stopping.

Some people released their frustrations with kendo or defenceless boxing bags, others yelled at their friends or screamed into their pillows. Ryou had a habit of locking himself up in his kitchen and cooking himself full seven course feasts that no one else would ever get a bite of. Jounouchi had never seen Yuugi really angry, but he had always kind of made the assumption Yuugi was one of those people that listened to music until it all just went away.

As it turned out, however, Yuugi liked to shoot virtual bullets into unsuspecting video game characters until their bodies no longer jerked from the impact.

"So," Jounouchi said slowly, watching quietly as Yuugi repeatedly squeezed the trigger in a futile attempt to shoot the game's narrator, "You think you're ready for a new game yet, Yuugi? Wouldn't ask, only… you've been playing this one every day for the last four days and… I think you're making the arcade guys nervous."

"No thanks," Yuugi said quietly.

"See, they're starting to think you're using this game as, you know… practice for the real thing, and… you can understand why that might worry some people."

"Sorry, but…"

"So they asked me to ask whether you're planning on continuing this."

"I am," he said simply, and Jounouchi took a deep breath, nodding.

"Okay, that's fine. They don't really mind, because all the more money for them, and they're actually just grateful you're not playing one of the games that gives redemption tickets, 'cause they only have so many TVs to give away," he said, but Yuugi didn't acknowledge the joke. Jounouchi tried to laugh, but in the end just grimaced and leaned forward, trying to catch Yuugi's gaze. "Na, Yuugi… nothing happened, did it? You're not… you're not really mad, are you?"

He didn't say anything, instead remaining focussed on his game, and Jounouchi bit his lip.

"You… wanna talk about it?"

He shook his head silently.

"Because you know, we can talk about whatever. Girls, school, other guys, games, the meaning of life, I'm all ears. Whatever's bothering you, I'm more than happy to listen and help any way I can," he offered, then waited a beat for Yuugi's answer. When none was forthcoming he lifted his hand to start chewing his thumbnail, thinking about all the possibilities. Yuugi had been acting weird since he started talking to Yamino, but that had been happy weird. This was the kind of weird that made Jounouchi worry about Yuugi maybe picking a fight with someone that could beat him to a pulp. This was a side of his friend that he'd never seen before. "C'mon, Yuugi…"

"I'm fine," he said quietly. "I don't need you to worry about me. I just want to play my game. Please, just… let me play my game."

"Yuugi…"

"Please."

He stared at him helplessly for a moment, then sighed and stepped away, nodding. "Okay. Didn't mean to bug you, only it's just," He paused, his hand hovering in the air near Yuugi's arm, uncertain as to whether he should touch him or not. "It's not just the arcade guys you're worrying, here."

Although he didn't physically move, something changed about Yuugi's face or posture, at that. He blinked, then shook his head and refocussed on his game, leaving Jounouchi to step back and head off to another game station.

He picked the row of sit-down fighting games, which were usually Yuugi's favourite. He had lost his first game to the computer system when he noticed someone sitting down in his peripheral vision, and so turned to meet Yuugi's apologetic gaze.

"I'm sorry, Jounouch-kun," he said quietly. "I haven't had a very good week."

* * *

Considering that they didn't usually talk on a meaningful, personal level that often, it was surprisingly easy to tell Jounouchi the whole story about Atemu. He had started off by almost avoiding the topic, but after Jounouchi suggested they go get a burger and he had curled into the familiar booth of Burger World, he found himself telling Jounouchi everything, from their old relationship to how angry he had found himself when Atemu had decided risking a relationship wasn't worth his moral fibre.

Jounouchi had gotten very quiet when Yuugi admitted Atemu had kissed him, and he stayed silent almost a full minute after Yuugi had stopped talking. Yuugi had stopped Anzu from telling him any of this on Sunday, but now he was beginning to wonder why. Jounouchi was his best friend for a reason, after all.

Jounouchi waved over the waitress to order another round of burgers with the lot, and Yuugi sat back, waiting for him to finish thinking. Jounouchi wasn't much for introspective thought, so it was only expected that it would take him a while to work everything through.

"I thought you liked girls?" he asked finally, as the waitress walked away.

"I do," Yuugi said blankly.

"But you didn't mind Yamino kissing you?"

He paused, only vaguely seeing the connection. "I liked that too."

"So you like guys."

"I… guess so?" He wasn't sure if he was answering or asking, and apparently Jounouchi caught the question mark too, because he sat back to give Yuugi a long, searching look.

After another moment he nodded and pointed out the window. "Fantasy-speaking, and assuming she's got a great personality, 'cause I know that matters to you. Would you go out with her?"

Yuugi blinked and followed Jounouchi's finger, coming to rest on a girl leaning against the road gate a few metres away. "I… guess."

"What about her?"

This girl was walking down the street with a mobile to her ear. "Mmmaybe."

"Either one of those girls there?"

"I suppose –"

"What about that guy?"

Yuugi paused, reluctantly letting his imagination drift over the young man Jounouchi was pointing to now. He was talking to a little girl—his sister, by the look of it. He seemed pretty nice, and his smile was nice enough… "I really don't know, Jounouch-kun."

"Seriously, Yuugi."

"I don't know," he repeated, his blush creeping up to his hairline. "Yeah, maybe?"

Jounouchi nodded as well, sitting back in his chair like he'd solved the mystery of the universe. "So you could do both. Kinda weird, but cool. Girls apparently think that's 'cute', these days."

Yuugi blinked at him, completely lost for a second, then laughed, his blush only getting worse. "I never really thought about it." He hesitated, eyeing Jounouchi nervously. "You don't… you're not creeped out?"

He paused, giving the question the same amount of thought he always believed Yuugi deserved. "Well… surprised is more the word. I mean, Otogi I could believe, because I've seen him checking me out in the changing rooms, but you… no offence, man, but I never really imagined you with even a chick. I thought the porn and stuff was really more just because it was offered to you."

Yuugi blinked again, then shrugged a little. He'd never made a point of thinking about it. "I did like Anzu. And now I kinda think I might like Atemu."

"They are pretty similar, sometimes," Jounouchi said, draping one arm over the back of the booth. "Maybe arrogant, mean and obsessed with their appearance is your type."

"Thanks for the tip, Jounouch-kun," he said blankly, but his friend just grinned. They paused as the waitress returned with their food, and Yuugi took a bite out of his burger to think before continuing. "Problem is that Atemu might be right. I've never really thought about it before, and it's only because this whole thing has made me think about it that I am. Like he said, maybe I'm just thinking I like guys because—"

"You're eighteen and horny as a rabbit?"

"—a guy likes me," he finished with a grin. "It's just annoying me that he won't even let me think about it. He doesn't want to hurt me, so he's not going to come near me, and who cares if that hurts me, because at least we're not risking anything."

"I dunno if that makes sense," Jounouchi said, and Yuugi spread his hands.

"It doesn't! But when I talked to Grandpa, he said it was for the best. He said I'd been happy without Atemu for years, so why should I put myself in a situation that might make me unhappy?"

Jounouchi raised an eyebrow, confused. "But you don't like that either?"

"Which is what I said to Ryou-kun. And Ryou-kun said 'better the devil you know' and what the heck does that even mean?" he demanded, and then took a vicious bite out of his burger and chewed angrily. "He can't talk! His first kiss was a guy, and now he's set up for life with him – a guy that can't even call him by his real name!"

"Well… it is different, I mean… He never liked girls," Jounouchi said haltingly, but Yuugi waved it off as unimportant to the conversation.

"He says I should be happy being unhappy like this because at least I've got a good memory of our friendship that isn't spoiled by a doomed relationship. He says Atemu is doing the right thing for everyone involved by just cutting it all off at the pass!" he said, and Jounouchi frowned, shoving half his burger in his mouth to consider.

It took him a while, and the rest of his burger, but Jounouchi eventually dusted off his hands and sat forward, holding his hands up like he was gripping a ball in front of himself. "Alright, Yuugi, I'm gonna give this whole Devil's Advocate thing a shot here."

"Huh? Devil's what?"

"First off… well, it's got nothing to do with it, but the fact is, none of us really like Yamino," Jounouchi said bluntly, and Yuugi hunched forward in disbelief. Jounouchi grimaced, but continued anyway. "I'm sure he's a great guy once you get to know him, but none of us really do. Anzu says she can tolerate him when you're there to soften him up, but as it is, he comes across as a jerk. I mean, I liked him enough on the trip, don't get me wrong, and he's got your interests at heart and all that, which is great. But still, from what I figured, he's still a jerk."

"Atemu—"

"—is a jerk in lots of different ways," Jounouchi continued pointedly, and Yuugi shut his mouth again. "He's… actually, he's kinda your opposite, in a lot of ways. When something's wrong, you wait until it actually interferes with your life, then you deal with it. From what you say, at the first sign of a problem, Yamino makes tracks, and that's _how _he deals with it. Think about it in real terms, here. Are you actually capable of dealing with that kind of relationship?"

Yuugi lowered his head, picking up another hamburger. He knew Jounouchi was trying to help, but he could feel that unfamiliar anger returning. Of course he knew how to react to Atemu's moods and methods of dealing with things. They had been best friends for ten years, many of which included the years that Atemu had to deal with people who had problems with his colouring, and his bad school marks, and before he learned that the end to an argument with someone he didn't like did not end with punching the other guy out.

"And they're right, Yuugi. You do have a habit of just doing what other people want you to. If you got in a relationship with someone that likes you as much as Yamino seems to, and then realised you didn't feel the same, you'd probably end up staying because it made him happy," Jounouchi said, picking up his chips to start in on. "It's not that they—or me, now I think about—want you to be unhappy like this, so much as we don't want you to get hurt, and this whole thing could just turn out really ugly. Too much of a risk."

"What are you risking?" Yuugi said quietly, but Jounouchi didn't seem to hear the pronoun.

"Just everything important, man. Don't worry, you'll find someone else. Someone safer for a first relationship."

Yuugi put down his burger and buried his face in his hands, biting his lip to keep from yelling. "What, exactly, is a _safe _first relationship?" he demanded quietly, but Jounouchi just grunted and continued on with his chips, clearly not getting the problem. It was starting to seem like no one would.

* * *

Despite its location and the position of its occupant, the apartment above the CBD Ninja Doujou was rarely silent. It was home to two boisterous teenagers and a man that was only quiet when he was working. Things only got worse on Saturday nights when he invited his senior students up for a night of illegal drinking. There was no such thing as quiet when they were throwing a party.

"So here's to Atemu Yamino!" Ozawa shouted, lifting his glass up above his head. "He's arrogant, irresponsible, disobedient and has dishonoured my doujou more times than I care to remember; but his dishonour has resulted in several videos that rake in the cash for me. You were a lousy student and a worse ninja, Yamino, but damn am I sorry to see you leave my classes. Cheers!"

"Cheers!" Atemu echoed, saluting his former master with his drink, and the whole class chorused the word before tipping their glasses back to drink.

After ten years of training, Atemu had decided to give up ninja as a practicing sport. It had been coming for three years, since he had started professional gaming, and whenever a tournament came up, he would no longer have time for the classes that were called twice a week. Besides, everyone in the whole doujou knew Atemu wasn't really cut out for ninja – it took most of his concentration to stay silent during the exercises, so he was only a reasonable fighter when he could make noise. But after school and gaming, Atemu just couldn't be bothered to put the effort in, any more.

Not that Ozawa was going to stop using him for promotional videos, of course.

"But Yamino can't leave," complained Atemu's sparring partner. "We need the gay mascot, man!"

"What?" laughed Ozawa.

"We're losing our mascot, we need another gay guy to exploit," he said, and Atemu snorted.

"You could always take his place," suggested another student, and the whole class exchanged evil grins as Satsuza burned bright red with a blush.

"I'm not gay!"

"Uh huh, we believe you."

"I'm not!"

"Aw, he's so pretty, we could even dress him up in a skirt and make him our _girl _mascot!"

"You are not getting me in a dress!"

"Hey, yeah, it'll be a slogan! 'We accept all kinds – just look at this freak'!"

"Yamino, help!"

"Not a chance," he said, smirking behind his glass as the teasing group pounced on Satsuza and began dragging him off to torture further. His smile faded as the objecting shouts moved across the room, and he looked down into his glass, eyeing his wavering reflection in the drink.

"Really is a shame to see you go, Yamino."

He looked up, raising his eyebrow at Ozawa, who was standing in front of him, holding both his drink and the bottle it came from in the one hand. "Master?"

"Ahh, good, if you start calling your teacher by name, he's within his rights to kill you in your sleep; whether you're still a practicing student or not," he said, and then turned around to fall back into Satsuza's seat. "You're welcome to come back and spar with your comrades any time. If your teacher finds out you're going to seed, he's also within his rights to attack you and drag you back here for retraining."

Atemu smirked, watching silently as Ozawa leaned back and poured himself another drink, eyeing the amber liquid with a trained eye before taking a fast drink.

"So," he said, gasping out the burn, "what's wrong with you?"

"Excuse me?"

"As painful as I'm sure leaving my illustrious doujou is, somehow I doubt that's the reason you've been an even worse fighter than usual, lately, or why you're moping around at your own farewell celebration," he said, and turned to look at him face-on, still sharp-eyed despite the alcohol he'd already consumed. "You're never exactly what I'd call exuberant, but it's been a month and you're still acting like someone kicked your puppy." He paused, pulling back for a second before frowning. "I didn't just make some obscure sexual reference, did I?"

Atemu stared at him blankly for a moment, wondering just how much his master had already drunk. "No."

"Damn, I have a feeling that would've been funny. So? Speak up – confide in your teacher."

"I'd really rather not," he said honestly, a smirk fighting its way over his lips when Ozawa scowled at him.

"You have no respect. I have thirteen year old beginner students with more respect than you."

"Yeah, but they're still little and scared of you."

"I am a master of a silent and deadly martial art."

"I'm aware of that," he said, nodding agreeably. "But that doesn't make you scary."

"I could murder you in your sleep, in a locked house, and no one would ever know how you had died."

"I'm aware of that too. But you're too honourable for it and my house has security cameras on every entrance."

He paused, considering that for a moment, then shook his head in frustration and decided to move on. "You are still underage and I'm allowing you to drink alcohol in my apartment."

"Excellent argument, master."

"Your sarcasm only draws attention to your teenage immaturity."

Atemu chuckled, leaning back and crossing his legs in one smooth movement. "It's just a personal problem, master, and an old one. Discussion will not affect it."

"Perhaps. But a release of the emotions is integral to an inner balance, one which brings all hidden meanings to light and allows us to achieve the impossible," he said, sliding the hand still holding his whisky bottle through the air in a graceful arc that was probably intended to symbolise chi. Atemu just continued gazing at him blandly, and Ozawa scowled. "Just tell me what's wrong, you disrespectful moron, or I'll stay curious and that will disrupt my chi which will affect my training. And I will take it out of your hide."

"It's about a boy. Still curious?" he asked, but he lost his smile when Ozawa motioned for him to continue. "I mean a boy as in –"

"Yamino, the whole doujou knows what you mean. And I have seen many hours of security footage. If I was uncomfortable, I would have expelled you long ago."

"Damn," he said irritably, and Ozawa hid his chuckle in his drink. Atemu sat back again, staring into his drink as he tried to think of a way to either phrase his problem or tell his master to take a hike. After almost a full minute, interrupted by several quick glances only to find Ozawa still waiting patiently, he sighed and surrendered. "Is it more honourable to cut off a wounded hand that might turn gangrenous, or to leave it alone and hope it heals on its own?"

His master paused, taking a slow sip of his drink and swilling it around his mouth before swallowing to answer. "Personally, I would take the hand to a doctor for treatment, but considering the source of the metaphor, I would suppose that wasn't an option," he said thoughtfully. "Whose is the hand?"

"Old friend."

Ozawa nodded slowly, trying to work the metaphor through his mind and into a likely possibility. "You fell in love with a friend?"

"Yeah."

"For the gods' sakes, Yamino, everyone's done that before," he said, rolling his eyes in exasperation. "It's standard procedure for life. Don't act as if you're a special case."

He scowled but didn't answer, and Ozawa narrowed his eyes in consideration before continuing. "I can see how this might be a problem, however. Am I to assume this friend prefers female companionship?"

"That's the real problem. He's never had a 'companion', before."

"Ohh… How old is this kid?"

"My age."

"Ohh… Poor bastard."

Atemu slammed his free hand down on his knee, irritated, but Ozawa just laughed and saluted him with his drink. "For once you are honourable, Yamino, but I feel you may have chosen a poor circumstance to be so."

"What?"

"From what you're saying, I assume that this kid is somewhat willing to explore the possibility of a relationship, but you, knowing he is still young in the ways of the world, are refusing to allow the opportunity to arise. Knowing you, you probably tried to cut yourself out of his life altogether. Much like my doujou, to use a well-placed simile," he added, glancing around at the mingling class. "What you are doing is being honourably selfish. True, you are not forcing yourself or your feelings on an innocent, and that is as honourable as you can be in this modern world of supposed acceptance. However, what you are really doing is protecting yourself. This way, you can keep the perfect image of your friend, and you appear to be taking the moral high road. To everyone that only thinks of the surface, you are doing the right thing. You are being good, and honest, and kind. That is what it appears to be."

"But you don't think so?"

"I don't know this friend of yours, so I am in no position to assume anything about him, but to have reached this age and not have any experience in matters of 'companionship' implies one of two things. One, he is hideous in either mind or body. Or two, either he or others around him have been so far unwilling to risk the pain of a relationship." He paused, offering a knowing smile to match Atemu's frown. "The safest road is a lonely one, Yamino. Or, to quote my daughter's favourite movie at the moment, 'if you never let anything happen to him, then nothing will ever happen to him'. Imagine living your life without ever doing anything. It wouldn't be much of a life, as far as I can see."

Atemu closed his eyes, struggling to find the words to argue. "With all due respect, Master, you're missing the point. He doesn't know how to pull back from danger when it's there. If I got into a relationship with him, he might end up hating it, and he wouldn't… he wouldn't want to hurt me by pulling out."

"How do you know that, if he's never been in the situation before?"

"Because he wears his heart on his sleeve! He's made of frikking glass!"

"A truly touching way to describe someone you care about so deeply," he said dryly, and Atemu flinched, the phrase somehow jarring something in his memory. Ozawa frowned, tilting his head forward in a pointed gesture. "You make him sound very young and shallow, Yamino. I wonder if you dishonour your friend by assuming so much about his thoughts and wishes."

Atemu blinked rapidly, completely lost as to how he should react to that. Ozawa met his gaze for another long, bleary moment, and then pushed himself up off the couch, leaving Atemu alone with his thoughts.

* * *

A sliver of darkness moving past the doorway was the only sign Dendera saw of her brother being up and moving. It had been five weeks since he'd come home from dinner at Yuugi's; five weeks since she'd seen Yuugi himself; and five weeks since she'd seen more than a glimpse of her brother before he disappeared either into his room or out of the house. It was fairly strange, all things considered, because from what she remembered, Yuugi had always made her brother much more visible.

She paused, fidgeting with her controller for a moment before leaning forward to turn off her playstation. Her brother's angst was always much more entertaining.

She found Atemu in the kitchen, staring down at the container of instant coffee as the kettle came to a slow boil. He looked the same as he usually did when she saw him these days: as if the world were ending. And, like he had since coming home drunk from his farewell at the doujou, it seemed like it was his fault they would all being dying in a ball of nuclear fire. That or he was about to begin a huge gaming tournament… it was hard to tell, with her brother.

"Go away," he said shortly, before she could even take a full step into the kitchen.

"I didn't say anything!"

"Go away," he repeated.

"So when're you going to bring Yuugi over for dinner?" she asked, ducking under his glare to push herself up on the kitchen bench. "What've you guys been doing all month that doesn't involve him coming over where I can talk to him too?"

He grunted, turning off the kettle and instead turning to grab a whole bottle of coke zero from the fridge before stalking out of the room. Dendera blinked twice, then pushed herself off the counter and hurried after him. "You do know it's like ten o'clock in the morning, right? Are you really gonna drink that?"

"Shut up," he snapped irritably, but she knew better than to be deterred. She followed him up the stairs, and just darted into his room before he had even touched the door to slam in her face. He glared at her again, and she smiled, waiting for him to either try and forcibly remove her, ignore her presence, or try and find another room she wouldn't follow him into. All were futile, and they both knew it, but it was always interesting to see him try.

After several long, drawn out seconds, Atemu took a step closer and leaned down until they were eye-to-eye. "You are the most irritating member of our extremely annoying family, Dendera. And I will give you ten thousand yen, right here, right now, if you stay the hell away from me for the next two weeks."

"No deal," she said bluntly, and Atemu's left eyebrow twitched once before he stepped back and turned away, heading over to his computer. She smirked triumphantly, setting her hands on her hips. She loved it when he tried to ignore her.

She jumped over to sprawl across his bed and pulled down the blue stuffed rabbit he always kept on his headboard for reasons she couldn't fathom. It gave her something to play with while she gave him a few minutes to relax his defences.

"So, does all this mean you and Yuugi aren't talking, again?" she asked, peering up at him to watch as his eyes narrowed in annoyance. "You did something stupid again, didn't you? Does Yuugi hate you this time, or is it the other way around?"

He didn't react, and she rolled onto her stomach to better appraise his lack of expression. A non-reaction was quite often admission of stupidity, but since he wasn't gripping anything and getting angry, she figured this was a little more complicated than simple hatred. She put her chin in her hand, thinking back over all her relationship manga and movies about all the possibilities here.

"You don't still _like _Yuugi, do you?"

His hand curled into a fist on his knee, and she raised an eyebrow at it, amused. "Ohh, I get it! You told him you liked him and he doesn't like you, so now you're not talking to him because you're all embarrassed! Ohh, that's so cute and adorable and big brother, I just may have to hug you!"

For a moment, Atemu didn't react, before he very suddenly turned his head to look at her face on. "You could never understand, now go away," he said roughly, and her smile fell. If he was being so obvious about it, she knew he was lying. That meant she was wrong. Damn.

She tapped her fist against the rabbit's stomach, considering again. "You told Yuugi… but he doesn't like you… and he's all creeped out?"

He rolled his eyes up to the ceiling before meeting her gaze again. "If you understand, then you understand I want to be left alone! Do your big brother a favour and get out!"

"Right, that doesn't sound like Yuugi at all," she said, and frowned, furrowing her brow as she tried to come up with a good reason. "Okay, well… maybe… you didn't tell Yuugi?"

He shook his head slightly and went back to his computer, too frustrated to comment any further. She fiddled with the rabbit's ears, trying to tally possibilities within what she'd already learned.

"You told Yuugi you liked him… but he already has someone?" She waited for some minute reaction, then punched the rabbit with both hands, irritated at her own lack of success. "Come on, big brother, give me something here! So far, the only other thing I can think of is you telling Yuugi and him telling you back, but then you two'd be getting it on rather than not seeing each other, unless you did something like tell yourself he wasn't ready for it or something, but not even you're that stu-"

She cut herself off, blinking at how tightly clenched his fist was, and then up at the tense muscles in his neck, leading on to a set jaw. She leaned further over the rabbit, her eyes widening the longer she stared at him. "You didn't."

For a second, he didn't even blink, and then he slowly turned to meet her gaze again, clear and steady. "I already told you that you were right before; Yuugi isn't interested in men, let alone me."

"_Liar_!" she cried, shoving herself up onto her knees. "You liar! You cheap, dirty cheat! Yuugi said he liked you back, and you're too scared to do anything about it! You're doing exactly what Dad does – telling yourself Yuugi isn't gay because that way you don't have to worry about being in the wrong! You cheat, cheat, cheat!"

"Shut up!" he snapped, spinning around in his chair to glare at her. "I know Yuugi better than you, and I know how he works – he just said that because he thinks it's what's best, not because it's what he really wants!"

"You don't know that! You probably didn't even give him time to talk before you decided! You're just assuming things because it makes you feel better about being a coward!"

"You are too young to understand," he snarled. "You can't possibly understand the consequences of something like this!"

"I'm only three years younger than you!" she shouted, clenching her fists by her side. "I've had a boyfriend, I'm just as experienced as you!"

"It's not about age or experience! Yuugi's never had a relationship, and I am not a good choice for his first!" he shot back. "Think about it! I've wanted him since before I even had hormones – he's my everything, dammit! First relationships are too dangerous even without someone who feels as much as I do!"

"That's such bullshit!" she cried. "Firsts are always scary and always dangerous! You say you're protecting him, well that's great, but what happens when he does have his first and that person _doesn't _care about him as much as you do?"

Atemu opened his mouth but didn't answer, and Dendera inwardly flinched, suddenly realising she actually had her brother listening. She pulled herself a little further upright, thinking fast, because she knew this would never happen again.

"You always fall madly in love with your first lover, don't you? You think they're your whole world and the only person you'll ever be with. So, chances are, when Yuugi does get a girlfriend or whatever, he's going to put everything he has into it! And it probably won't be a first for the other person, and they might not care as much, so Yuugi's gonna get hurt even if they do actually care about him! At least when it's you, you'll care about it just as much as Yuugi!" she said, then blinked, relaxing her hands as Atemu's shoulders fell a little. "If it does fade or doesn't work out, then at least you'll have both lost something important. You'll have both lost your first. And if it does, well then at least you know what he's going through, and you can help him. And that's way more than I had with my boyfriend. It's way more than most people have."

Atemu continued to stare at her blankly for almost a full minute, and then leaned forward. "Have you been talking to my Ninja Master?"

She blinked. "What?"

"When did you actually start using your brain for more than annoying me?"

She gaped, too confused to return an irritated comment, but Atemu actually offered up a small smile. She continued to stare at him blankly, but he just sat back in his chair with a hand to his mouth, gazing at her like she was holding the answers to some great mystery out for him to see.

"You're crazy, big brother," she said bluntly, and he smirked, his lips barely visible past his fingers.

"You may be right, at that."

* * *

Even after being lectured by both Ozawa and Dendera on how selfish he was being, it took Atemu a long time to come to terms with what he was really doing, and even longer to work out what he had to do about it. Now matter how he looked at it, they were right – he was just running away from a relationship with Yuugi because he was scared of the consequences.

He was scared of hurting Yuugi, it was true, but he was more scared of losing Yuugi completely. As it had been for the last four years, he had always subconsciously known that he could have gone back to Yuugi. It would take effort to change things, but he'd always known it was him keeping them apart. As it was now, he could keep his fantasy of a possible relationship, because they had never had one to fall apart.

But now that it had been repeatedly pointed out to him, Atemu knew what he had to do. He would have to apologise to Yuugi, first off, and then gently test the waters to see if Yuugi could forgive him and/or give him another chance.

Unfortunately, his plan for doing so fell apart the moment he walked into school the first day back from summer vacation, only to meet Yuugi's gaze from across the classroom and then his glare.

Apparently a month and a half had not been long enough for Yuugi to calm down.

Atemu swallowed, shifting his gaze across Yuugi's friends. Most of them weren't even looking around at him, and when he did manage to catch someone's eye, it was Ryou. From the cool reaction he had gotten after the first kiss, Atemu had assumed Ryou would be just as angry as Yuugi, but he was surprisingly greeted with a quick smile and approving nod.

Over the rest of the day, Atemu noticed that reaction was generally echoed by most of the group. When he had to team up with Jounouchi for a reading in English, the blond actually gave him a wink like they were conspiracy partners. Anzu even thanked him for stopping to let her leave the classroom first, when they were going out to electives.

It carried on for almost a week, until he began to wonder if it was some kind of practical joke, and if he should prepare for a very painful end. The only negative reactions he had garnered at all were from Yuugi, who was glaring whenever Atemu met his gaze, and doing an excellent job of avoiding him in study hall and breaks.

It would have been frustrating, if Atemu wasn't almost certain he deserved it.

The ridiculous idea of dragging Anzu aside and asking her to get Yuugi alone with him for a few minutes was almost appealing when the class filed out on Friday afternoon, Atemu watching from his seat as Jounouchi and Yuugi left together, talking about some video game Atemu was glad he had never heard of. He had cleaning duty in the science room that afternoon, and he was looking forward to it even less than usual. Time alone with nothing to do but clean almost always resulted in a depressing circle of thought. There was too much for him to be depressed about right now, even without the added cleaning.

He sighed, slipping the last of his books into his bag. If Yuugi was still avoiding him by Friday of next week, he decided as he stood up, he would just talk walk over to their little group some lunchtime and start talking. He would pull one of Dendera's tricks and just keep talking and following Yuugi around until they were done. Not really his style, but if it worked, he would try it.

It took him a few minutes to get to the science rooms, and by the time he did, most of the students had already left. He was alone as he threw his bag onto a hook and grabbed a cloth to start washing the beakers.

The problem was really wrapped up in how damn right everyone was. He was honestly and truly the only one that was really at fault. He could blame Sugoroku and Yuugi's friends for being over protective, but if he was being honest, he knew he wouldn't have cared what they thought.

"Atemu?"

He blinked, his hand slipping on the soap dispenser he had been picking up. Yuugi was standing halfway into the classroom, his fingers nervously tapping on the door where he held it. He looked slightly irritated, and a little apprehensive, but determined, all the same. "I want to talk to you," he said bluntly, and Atemu straightened his back in surprise.

"Yeah, I wanted to –"

"I just – I think you should know I'm – Everyone always says that I don't get mad, and I guess that's fair, because I often don't, but sometimes it's just because I don't want people to think I'm angry with them personally," he said, his eyes flitting all over the classroom but never landing on Atemu himself. "But that's usually because I'm not angry with people. Everyone's entitled to their own opinion and should do what they think is right. Usually I'm okay with that, because what other people think and do is their own business. But – but this last month, I've been thinking about that, and… and well, this time—in this particular circumstance, I mean—what everyone's been doing hasn't been their own business. It's been my business. And yet everyone's still doing what they think and do. So… I just – I wouldn't tell my friends that, because I don't want to hurt their feelings, but you said we're not friends any more, so it's okay for me to tell you that I'm angry. At you. And everyone. But mainly you. I just… you should know that. So you don't think it's my friends that are upsetting me, and try to help me like you did the last few years with beating people up. It's you I'm mad at," he added, and Atemu blinked.

"Yeah, I figured that one out," he said slowly, and Yuugi nodded quickly.

"Good. I'll go then," he said, and then slipped back out of the room. Atemu furrowed his brow, then gasped and put down his cloth. This was his chance to talk to Yuugi alone!

"Yuugi, wai-" he began, but stopped when Yuugi stepped back into the room, looking a little more frustrated with his hand up and finger pointing at the ceiling.

"Because it's not right, is it? What you're doing isn't fair, and it's not fair for me or you or anyone, so that means it's not right! You're just making decisions about how I should think and feel, and I'm the only one that should be able to do that, aren't I?" he cried, finally meeting Atemu's gaze as if asking for confirmation. "No one should know what I want unless I tell them, except me! No one can make choices for somebody else! But they all are and I'm so sick of it!"

Atemu blinked again, and Yuugi gasped, suddenly realising what he'd said. They stared at each other for an instant, Atemu's eyebrow rising in question, before Yuugi suddenly spun around and disappeared out the door again. Atemu stepped back on his heels, setting a hand on his hip, but he didn't have time to think of anything but the fact Yuugi was either being very strange or somewhat adorable before Yuugi was back, waving his pointed finger as if he was realising something important.

"They all keep making decisions for me!" he cried. "They all say 'this is what you should be doing' or 'this is what's right' or 'this is an acceptable risk'! And I keep wondering what the heck an acceptable risk is, and they just keep giving me examples but no explanation!"

Atemu hesitated, then nodded. "Like I did with us."

"Well, yeah, but at least then you didn't tell me I should like you for it!" he cried, waving whole arm now. "I'm so mad at you, and I'm mad at them, but I can't be mad at them because they're trying to be nice! Why don't any of you think I can think?" he demanded, and then stiffened up at his own words. He hesitated, and Atemu almost thought he would walk out again, but Yuugi instead took a few steps forward, touching his own chest over his heart. "I like you. I like Jounouch-kun, and Anzu, and Ryou and Otogi-kun and Honda-kun and Bakura-kun and I know I like all of you. I know I want to spend time with all of you. And I know I don't like Pegasus-san, and I know that just because he hasn't tried to kidnap me this time doesn't mean I should come when he sends me a pretty invitation. I know that because when someone scares me like he does, I shouldn't spend time with them."

Atemu nodded, not entirely certain he knew where this was going but all too happy to let Yuugi just continue rambling. He looked supisingly stressed and long overdue for a good venting.

"I know who I like and who I don't like, and I know who I do and don't want to spend time with, and I know when someone is dangerous! I don't need other people to decide that stuff for me, because I'm fully capable of it on my own!" he shouted, then heard his own voice reverberate through the room and lowered his voice to a dull murmur. "I'm sick of everyone thinking I can't. I'm sick of people making decisions for me. I'm sick of everyone acting like I'm some useless child that does everything wrong."

They hesitated, and Yuugi slowly raised his eyes to meet Atemu's gaze. The glare from earlier was gone, replaced by an indescribable look that Atemu couldn't bring himself to understand. It was lonely and tired, asking for something but utterly certain it couldn't be given. Atemu had to turn away and pick up his cleaning cloth, because he really didn't know what to do with that look.

"How is it that my friends can trust me to make it through huge life and death things like kidnapping and death threats, but don't think I can handle something like this?" Yuugi asked quietly. "They trust me enough to talk to me about their relationships, and they ask me about them… but as soon as I want to have one, they tell me I shouldn't."

"I don't know," Atemu murmured, wiping a beaker down rather than look at him. "Maybe you should ask them."

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because they'd think I'm angry with them!" he cried, throwing his hand up in frustration. "And I'm not, I'm just… really mad."

"What's the difference?"

"If I was angry, I wouldn't want to talk to them, but I do! It's just this one little stupid thing that irritates me like nothing else, but I know they're trying to help, and they're just doing it because they care, but it's still really annoying!" he said, and then slumped back against the counter with a heavy sigh. "I want to yell and get mad, but I can't do that with my friends because they'd think I was really angry at them. They'd get really worried and careful and stop acting like normal because they'd be trying to calm me down or something. But I just want to – I want to – I want to tell someone that the world is a terrible place and I hate everything, even though I don't, and I want them to just listen and know I don't mean it!"

Atemu smiled, lowering his eyes at the thought. It would figure that Yuugi wouldn't actually know how to just vent out his frustrations with words, or even what the word for it was. "But you're doing that now. With me. And you're definitely mad at me."

"No, I'm _angry_ with you," he said, and when Atemu glanced at him, he was met with a half-hearted glare. "You're the worst of the lot. You keep protecting me from things I don't need protecting from. I've survived kidnappings and fires and death threats and all kinds of stuff without you, but you keep acting like I'm gonna break if you don't wrap me up in cotton wool!"

He smiled despite the snark, putting down his beaker to look at him sideways. "Only because I don't know and wasn't there for the other stuff. I'm overcompensating."

"Well, you shouldn't!" he said firmly. "I can take care of myself! I can take risks – I _want _to take them!"

"I know. And I'm sorry," he said quietly, and had to bite back his smile when that made Yuugi choke on his next words.

"You – what?"

"I'm sorry," he repeated, turning to look at him properly. "I'm sorry I made assumptions and ran away and didn't let you think about any of this before I did what I did. I keep jumping the gun and not giving you any time to think. And I'm sorry."

Yuugi gaped at him silently for a few moments, blinking rapidly. Clearly an apology had not been what he'd been expecting.

"I know I've been doing this since we were young, but I never realised," Atemu continued calmly. "But some people have been pointing it out to me, lately, and I'll try not to keep doing it so pointedly. From now on, should there be any further… developments between you and I, I will… try and give you time to decide what you want, and I will listen when you tell me and act accordingly. Or at least give it a try, because I've been doing pretty lousy so far."

It took several seconds before Yuugi's working mouth managed to make any sounds, and when it finally did, it was just somewhere between a grunt and a very weak moan. He hesitated a few moments longer, then grunted properly, stamping his foot. "But you're doing it already! I'm trying to be very angry and upset with you and there you go being all intelligent and sensitive and saying exactly what I was eventually planning on getting around to telling you, only you're saying it way better than I was going to! I was just going to call you a jerk that's telling me what I want when it's the complete opposite of what I really do want!"

Atemu frowned, trying to work that one out in his head. "So… what is it you do want?"

"Right now?" he asked blankly, and Atemu shrugged.

"It's just that you say you can't vent at your friends, because they won't understand you're just venting, rather than really yelling at them. Yet, from what you just said, and given that what I said was that you don't want to be close to me, you really _do _want to be my friend. Yet here you are, venting at me, which would suggest you _don't _want me as a friend," he said slowly, and Yuugi nodded firmly.

"That's right."

"But you do want to be close to me?"

"Yes," he said, then blinked and looked off to the side, considering, before nodding again. "Yes. I've got enough friends, and they have been much better friends than you were, because they're always really easy to read and never give me weird looks that I don't know how to deal with. I don't need you as a friend, Atemu."

"I see… so you just want to be able to vent at me?"

Yuugi grimaced, shaking his head. "That too, but it's not what I really want," he said, then took a deep breath and stepped forward again. "Atemu… I like you. And… while I do like you like I like Jounouch-kun and Anzu, I also like you as… something else. I've tried to figure out what it was like, this last month, but I've been really frustrated with you, and that's kinda… confused me a little. So I haven't actually come to a decision about how I like you, so much as I definitely know I like you a lot."

Atemu tilted his head, absently licking his lips to hide his amusement. He was almost certain this was both the best and worst confession he'd ever heard in his entire education. And if it ended like he was hoping, he was going to be replaying it in his head over and over again, after it was done.

"So what I'm saying, here, is that I'm really not happy with what you said at the start of the break, because I'm not happy with us not even being friends, and I don't think I'd be happy with us being friends, and I know that's contradictory, but if what TV and movies tell me is true, then it's perfectly normal," Yuugi said finally, reassuring himself before his final statement. "I think there's something I really, really want to explore between us, and I know you want to explore it too – you're just being stupid and thinking I can't take a risk. However, as we decided before, I can take a risk and I want to take this risk, and so I think we should definitely take this risk. What do you think?"

Atemu blinked, the sudden question catching him off guard. He'd been too happy with what Yuugi was saying to expect anything more. "Me?"

"Yes, Atemu," Yuugi said, his frustration still clear in his voice. "Do you want to do this or not?"

He frowned, setting his hands on his hips as he walked closer. "I think this is an insanely dangerous idea. I think it could all go horribly wrong, and I'm scared of losing you, and I want to just avoid the issue altogether, because you might not be as capable as you think you are. Not to mention Grandfather Sugoroku, Jounouchi and Anzu might all kill me if we do this," he added, but then smiled gently, nodding at Yuugi's scowl. "But if you protect me from your friends, I think I might be okay with being not-friends with you."

Yuugi continued frowning up at him, confused. "Not-friends as in not friends, or not-friends as in more than friends?"

"I have to admit I prefer the second option," he confessed, and Yuugi bit his lip, clearly having to force his frown to stay in place.

"So… that makes us…?"

"We'll have to take it slowly though," Atemu said firmly, even as his hands rose to hold both of Yuugi's shoulders. "I don't care how frustrated you are, or how angry you get at me, I am not taking advantage of you being eighteen and still a virgin."

"Hey, I do have self-control, you know!" he cried, but then swallowed hard when Atemu took a pointed step forward, into his personal space. "B-but the slow thing might be good. Because – because I don't want there to be any – I mean… nothing really open and… Bakura-kun-like. No possessive holding and growling at people that touch and… stuff."

"That's not what normal relationships are really like, Yuugi," Atemu said quietly, slowly letting his hands move down over Yuugi's shoulders to his chest. "I'm not going to be happy if you keep looking at girls, but I'm not going to kill anyone to look at you." Yet, he added silently, before his mind was reoccupied by the way Yuugi's eyes closed when Atemu's hands slid over his ribs.

"And – and no open declarations, I mean… the school doesn't have to know about this."

"I'd rather keep it quiet until I'm a little less nervous," Atemu agreed, his hands lingering on Yuugi's floating ribs due to the way Yuugi shifted when he touched them.

"You're nervous?" Yuugi asked, opening his eyes to give a pointed look at how close Atemu had moved. "This is you nervous, in this situation?"

He hesitated, then slowly leaned down, his hands pushing Yuugi up so their lips met halfway. He was still terrified; certain that they were both wrong—that Yuugi didn't really want this and neither did he—but it was ridiculously easy to give into the kiss. He made a point of keeping it reasonably chaste, for now, but even that felt almost right. It felt good and natural to take his time with this; to drink Yuugi in one stage at a time, because the rest would come.

Maybe this was what Kenichi had always wanted from him. Maybe this readiness to take time was what he'd been missing.

He pulled back, smiling when Yuugi followed after, but just hunched over to further wrap his arms around Yuugi in a tight hug. "You should see me when I panic."

"I'd like that, one day," Yuugi said weakly, his voice amusingly hoarse. He coughed, as if embarrassed by his own show of weakness, and continued, "So this does mean we're… together, right? No more looking at girls and for you, no other guys?"

"That's the basic idea, yes."

"Oh… good." Yuugi hesitated another moment, then pressed a little closer into Atemu's hold, curling his arms up over Atemu's own. He clearly wasn't accustomed to this kind of hug, because his hands stalled on Atemu's shoulders and stayed there, as if he weren't sure what to do with them from there.

But Atemu could understand that. There was a fine line between not being ready for something and just being inexperienced. He knew they'd both be walking that line for a few months, but even as terrified as he was, he still felt somewhat alright with it. It was Yuugi, after all. He knew he could walk the steps with Yuugi.

As long as those damn friends of theirs didn't get in the way. Damn, Otogi was going to be on his case about this for weeks.

"Hey, Yuugi," he said suddenly, the thought reminding him that they were still in school and Yuugi had last been seen heading out the door. "What're you even doing here?"

"Hm?"

He pulled back, letting his arms loosen until he could look at Yuugi but still hold him. "Weren't you going home with Jounouchi?"

"Oh… well, yeah, except, you know… I noticed you had cleaning duty today, and that reminded me of That Day, and…" Yuugi blinked, shrugging absently as he looked off to the side. "I was just getting more and more angry at everyone, so I figured I should deal with it. It'd already been a month – waiting around any longer would've been a waste of time," he added, and Atemu flinched.

"Cheap shot," he muttered, and Yuugi grinned, pushing forward to lean against his chest.

"Can I come over to your house for dinner tonight? I think I might avoid my house for a while until I'm ready to tell them about this," he said quietly. "It might take them a little while to admit they were wrong."

"They'll get over it. I did. Mostly," he added haltingly, and smirked when he felt Yuugi laugh against his chest. He tightened his hold until they were just leaning together, resting his chin in Yuugi's hair and gazing out across the classroom. "But until then… I'm more than happy to have you all to myself."

"That doesn't sound as comforting as it does possessive."

Atemu didn't even bother to answer to that one. It was all the same now, really.

* * *

_**And now it is done, and I can go hide, and hope you all review to tell me what you thought. Or at least that you caught all the references.**_


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